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MEMOIR 



REV. SAMUEL BARRETT, D.D. 



WITH A SELECTED SERIES OF 



HIS DISCOUKSES. 



BY 

LEWIS G. PRAY. 




BOSTON : 
WILLIAM V. SPENCER. 

1867. 






CAMBRIDGE : 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

Exchange 

Univ. of Mich. 

NOV 2 5 193* 




&fje JFoIIofoing SSriei Memoir 

IS 
MOST RESPECTFULLY AND SYMPATHIZINGLY DEDICATED TO THE 
WIDOW AND CHILDREN OF THE LATE DR. BARRETT, 
AS A 
TOKEN OF THE RESPECT AND AFFECTION OF ONE WHO WAS A 
PARISHIONER AND FRIEND THROUGH THE WHOLE 
COURSE OF HIS LONG MINISTRY, 
AND 
TO WHOM HE IS INDEBTED FOR HIS HIGHEST AND BEST ASPIRA- 
TIONS FOR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT, 
AND SOME OF THE HAPPIEST RECOL- 
LECTIONS OF LIFE. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Memoir 1 

DISCOURSES. 

I. Character and Mission of Christ 71 

II. The Unitarian Christian 86 

III. Man : his Ability and Kesponsibility 106 

IV. The Christian Life 121 

V. The Power of Example 133 

VI. Counsels for Young Men 147 

VII. Counsels for Young Women 161 

VIII. Counsels for Mothers 179 

IX. Man, and True Manliness 192 

X. A Good Old Age 204 



MEMOIR. 



MEMOIR. 



THE character of a model clergyman — a 
minister, faithful and devoted, of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ — is one that must ever com- 
mand admiration, and the most profound respect. 
A good man, a good preacher, a good pastor, 
he is at the same time a true lover of learning ; 
a genial friend of education, — secular as well as 
religious, for the young as for the old ; an advo- 
cate, by word and example, of private and public 
morals ; and, above all, a liberal, wise, and firm 
supporter of public, philanthropic, and religious 
institutions. When such a life is closed, some 
memorial of it seems demanded alike by a proper 
respect for the departed, and the highest welfare 
of the living. 

It is the object of the following Memoir to con- 
tribute something to such a purpose. In the 
absence of correspondence, autobiography, and 
other like material, the design of the writer is, 
that the ministerial and other public labors of the 
l 



2 MEMOIR. 

subject of it — his social, domestic, and religious 
feelings and principles as manifested in life — , 
shall be made to reveal, of themselves for the 
most part, the leading elements of the character 
which is here attempted to be portrayed, — the 
character of a model clergyman, and a faithful 
and devoted minister of the religion of Jesus 
Christ. 

Samuel Barrett was born at Royalston, in 
the county of Worcester, Mass., Aug. 16, 1795. 
He was descended, we are told, from an excellent 
yeoman stock. His ancestor, on the paternal 
side, was Humphrey Barrett, who came from 
England, and settled in Concord, Mass., about 
1640 ; and, on the maternal, of David Fiske, who 
lived in Lexington, and was born 1675. 

His grandfather was Oliver Barrett, who, after 
his marriage, settled in Chelmsford, and removed 
to Westford about the year 1770. Subsequently, 
he entered the army, and died at Albany, in the 
service of his country, leaving seven children. 
He married Anna Fiske, a daughter of Ebenezer 
Fiske, of Lexington, who was the ancestor of the 
many respected families of that name ; among 
others, of Benjamin Fiske, the well-known mer- 
chant of Boston, recently deceased at Lexing- 
ton. 

The family of this Oliver and Anna Fiske Bar- 
rett consisted of seven children. Of these, Ben- 



MEMOIR. 6 

jamin, the father of the subject of this Memoir, 
was the youngest but one. He was born in 
Chelmsford, 1770 ; married Betsy, the second 
daughter of Samuel Gerrish, an honored citizen 
of the town of Westminster during the Revolu- 
tion. They were the parents of eleven children, 
only eight of whom lived to grow up; namely, 
seven sons and one daughter. 

Of these, Samuel was the oldest. 

Of his childhood and early years, we catch but 
here and there a glimpse. We learn however, 
incidentally, that he was extremely diffident. A 
portion of this diffidence was doubtless inher- 
ited ; but the most of it, as he always believed, 
was occasioned by the treatment he received from 
his father's apprentices, engaged in a large tan- 
nery. Taking advantage of his extreme natural 
bashfulness, they made so much sport of his feel- 
ings, that at length he came to lose all con- 
fidence in himself; and it caused so much of 
self-distrust, that more than usual encouragement 
was necessary in whatever he was called to at- 
tempt. We incidentally catch another glimpse of 
him at this early period of his life. It appears 
that his sensibilities at this time were so acute 
and of so much depth, that it was found difficult 
to direct him by reproof without producing so 
much disproportioned suffering as to lead to ex- 
treme indulgence by way of atonement. Governed 
by the affections, he became firm, prompt, and 



4 MEMOIR. 

active, as well as gentle, docile, obedient, patient. 
A single glance of the eye was command, a smile 
was reward. But he was not without acuteness 
and penetration enough to feel " that praise un- 
deserved was satire in disguise." 

In 1803, when he was eight years of age, his 
parents removed from Royalston to Wilton, N.H. 
As their removal to this place had an important 
bearing on the after-life of young Barrett, it may 
not be uninteresting to remark, in passing, that 
Wilton is a quiet, secluded, and almost isolated 
farming town. Surrounded by an amphitheatre 
of hills, the township lies, as it were, in a basin, 
the surface of which is dotted over with hills of 
a lesser grade ; and these, gracefully rounded at 
their tops, slope away with a gentle, uniform de- 
clension, terminating in rich intervales. These 
hills and valleys, industriously cultivated, give 
many happy homes to a highly intelligent and 
moral population. It has long been favorably 
and widely known for its system of public schools, 
for its love of learning and religion, and as the 
birthplace of the Peabodys, the Abbots, the Bur- 
tons, the Livermores, and others, who have ac- 
quired no little distinction for their ministerial 
gifts and literary attainments. 

On one of the hillsides described, stood the 
schoolhouse where Samuel, during the following 
seven years of his life, attending eight or ten 
weeks in each year, by unremitted diligence and 



MEMOIR. 5 

application obtained more than one prize at the 
hands of the selectmen or school committee. Of 
these, the most valued of all, as he would some- 
times playfully remark, as his chirography was 
none of the best, was " for having made the great- 
est improvement in writing." On the summit of 
another of these eminences stood the village 
church, of which the Rev. Thomas Beede, on 
whose ministrations he attended, and with whom, 
as we shall soon see, he was to be most intimately 
associated. On the summit of another stood the 
dwelling of this good pastor, overlooking the whole 
village, where, through his advancing days of 
youth, Samuel was to live, labor, study, and pre- 
pare himself for college ; and where yet may be 
seen, still flourishing, more than one ornamental 
or fruit-bearing tree, planted or grafted by his own 
hand. And here it was, surrounded by the wild 
and picturesque scenery and the population such 
as we have described, that he received his first 
and most enduring impressions of knowledge, 
virtue, and piety. 

It was at a very early period that he began to 
dream of obtaining a liberal education, and to 
talk of becoming a minister of the gospel. But, 
as the time approached for a decision in the case, 
the circumstances and probabilities became dis- 
couraging in a high degree. In 1810, his father, 
who hitherto had been prosperous, met with a 
reverse. He continued to approve of his son's 



6 MEMOIR. 

purpose and aim, but could give him no encour- 
agement or promise of substantial aid. Samuel 
saw, therefore, that, if he would still adhere to 
his early choice, he must not look to others, 
but depend wholly on his own resources and 
exertions. In other words, it must be another 
instance of the pursuit of knowledge under diffi- 
culties. 

But it so happened, that, at this time (1811), 
his father formed the resolution, for the purposes 
of business, to remove his family from Wilton to 
Springfield, N.Y. By this unforeseen occurrence, 
the way was unexpectedly opened for Samuel to 
gratify the one strong wish of his heart. A con- 
sultation on the subject having been held with 
their pastor, Rev. Mr. Beede, it resulted in an 
agreement with this good minister to receive 
Samuel into his family, stand to him in the rela- 
tion of a father, with the distinct understanding, 
that, by personal instruction, Samuel should be 
well fitted for college in the course of the suc- 
ceeding three years ; while the pupil, on his part, 
most gladly accepted the relation to him of a 
child, with all the duties and labors which such 
a relation implied. To this arrangement of sus- 
tenance, care, and instruction on the one side, 
and, on the other, of faithful study and labor con- 
scientiously carried out by both, he often and 
gratefully recurred, as the means, under Provi- 
dence, by which he obtained, not only the foun- 



MEMOIR. 7 

dation well laid of a liberal education, but also a 
vigorous body and a healthy constitution. 

He never failed to express the gratitude he 
cherished toward his foster-father and friend, Mr. 
Beede. On one occasion, he is found saying, " I 
have one friend : may God grant him happiness ! 
"What could induce Mr. B. to befriend me as he 
has ? He could not have done more for a son : 
few fathers do so much." On another, he makes 
use of these words : " I cannot pass over in silence 
the continued expressions of kindness of Mr. B. 
I shall never be able to repay him for his good- 
ness. May I ever feel grateful to the Supreme 
Being for such a friend, and some time be able 
to reward him for his disinterested benevolence 
and undeserved affection ! " 

It is hardly necessary to add, in this connec- 
tion, that one so bent on obtaining a liberal educa- 
tion, and a responsible position in life, availed 
himself earnestly of every opportunity for im- 
provement which the place and circumstances 
offered. At the suggestion of Mr. Beede, a 
" Literary and Moral Society " was formed in the 
town. It was, in fact, a lyceum, only under a 
different name, before the modern lyceum was 
known. Of this, Samuel was an original mem- 
ber ; and by the questions here discussed, orally 
or in writing ; by the use of the " Town " and 
" Ministerial Libraries," — both rare in those 
days, — and by other means there offered of men- 



8 MEMOIR. 

tal and moral improvement, he acquired much 
valuable knowledge, and received impulses which 
enlarged his mind, and developed his whole na- 
ture, intellectual and religious. 

In 1813, before the expiration of the prescribed 
term of years, he was prepared to enter any of 
the New-England colleges but Harvard. Before, 
however, settling definitely his future plans and 
course of action, he concluded, as his first and 
best step, prompted alike by duty and affection, 
to visit his parents at Springfield. Here, for the 
accomplishment of his ultimate purpose, he took 
charge of a small school ; and subsequently of 
another in the village of Conajoharrie, N.Y., on 
the Mohawk River, which he taught for the term of 
six months. In the mean while, he carefully re- 
viewed the Latin and Greek authors before read ; 
and, as we have heard him humorously remark, 
" studied, with some considerable advantage, a 
leaf of human nature, — to him quite new, — in 
the life of Dutch farmers." 

In 1814 he visited two of the colleges in the 
State of New York, — the Union at Schenectady, 
and the Hamilton at Clinton ; but, not satisfied 
with either of them, he returned to Wilton. 
There, under the tuition of Mr. Beede, after four 
weeks of additional study, he felt himself pre- 
pared to enter Harvard College. Accordingly, in 
the month of August, he visited Cambridge for 
the first time, was present at the Commencement 



MEMOIR. 9 

exercises, and after the usual examination, hav- 
ing failed in nothing required, was admitted to 
the Freshman Class of the institution in which, 
from early childhood, he had desired to be edu- 
cated. 

An ambition most praiseworthy had thus 
brought him to Cambridge. His studious and 
correct habits had secured him an honorable ad- 
mission to the College, and he was - cherishing a 
resolute purpose to prosecute his further studies 
with new persistency and vigor. But now it was, 
for the first time, that he found himself without 
the necessary means, or friends able to aid him on 
his course. Under these circumstances, but one 
way seemed open to him ; namely, to adopt the 
vocation of a teacher. This course he at once 
cheerfully and successfully embraced, and pur- 
sued it, not only through all his vacations 
while an undergraduate, but for a long time 
after ; so that, between the years 1813 and 1823, 
he had devoted to school-keeping enough months 
in the aggregate to make four full years in all. 

When speaking on this subject, we have heard 
him remark, that, though the task was sometimes 
irksome, it yielded other than pecuniary benefits 
to the teacher, whatever chanced to be the profi- 
ciency of the pupils. To him, as to other teach- 
ers, it was a source of extreme satisfaction, in 
later years, that he could refer to not a few 
distinguished persons whom it had been his 



10 MEMOIR. 

privilege and pleasure to instruct. Among oth- 
ers, we have heard him name such honored men 
as Judge E. R. Hoar, Rev. Dr. Stearns, Dr. E. 
Peabody, Warren Burton, Abiel A. Livermore, 
J. H. Abbot, Esq., Dr. Hosmer, Judge Luther S. 
Cushing, Professor Holmes, Hon. R. H. Dana, 
and others. 

In 1817 he was elected a member of the Phi 
Beta Kappa, which, if any were needed, is suffi- 
cient evidence, we suppose, of his faithful and 
successful studies, and high standing in his Alma 
Mater. In 1818 he graduated, and received his 
first degree, A.B. For the occasion, the govern- 
ment had assigned him a forensic disputation with 
his classmate Walker ; but, in consequence of the 
illness of the latter, it was omitted. The ques- 
tion was, " Whether uncommon sensibility to the 
pains and pleasures of life be favorable to indi- 
vidual happiness ? " He prepared himself, with 
care, on the affirmative side of the question. 
" Give me," said he, " a fine sensibility to the 
objects of nature, to the emotions of friendship, 
to the sublimest, the tenderest feelings of pious 
devotion, and I can pity the world ; " a genuine 
outburst of his natural, unaffected feelings. 

From Cambridge, by previous arrangement, he 
went directly to Concord, Mass., and commenced 
teaching the Grammar School of this ancient and 
distinguished town. Here he remained for a 
year, during which time he was superintendent of 



MEMOIR. 11 

the Sunday school connected with the Rev. Dr. 
Ripley's society. This was one of the earliest 
Sunday schools established in the Common- 
wealth ; and it is not a little singular, that 
another of these schools had been opened in 
Wilton as early as 1816, while he was at college, 
which gave him an opportunity to witness the 
first dawnings of this beneficent institution, the 
knowledge of which left an abiding impression of 
its singular advantages to the youthful mind. 

In 1818 he " began the year with the deter- 
mination to live, in future, more devoted to God, 
more attentive to the duties of religion." Ac- 
cordingly, at this time, — Jan. 1, — he joined 
the Church of Christ at Wilton, by receiving bap- 
tism, and assenting to the articles of faith. Not 
far from the same time, we find him prescribing 
to himself the three following rules : " 1. I will 
pray to God, who is my Preserver and Creator, 
every day. 2. Not a day shall pass without wit- 
nessing my reading a portion of Sacred Scripture, 
if it be practicable. 3. It shall be my continual 
exertion to govern my passions, and form habits 
of moral conduct and pious devotion." And, 
through life, no rules of the kind perhaps were 
ever more conscientiously observed, alike hi spirit 
and in fact. 

In 1819 he returned to Cambridge, and entered 
the Divinity School. And here, again, it was a 
question of means, to secure which, he adopted 



12 MEMOIR. 

the same method that he had previously found 
so advantageous. He began with a private school 
in Concord ; then, in 1820-21, he took the Centre 
Grammar School at Maiden, and, through the 
whole third year of his theological course, 
taught a select school at Cambridgeport, retain- 
ing his room at college, and keeping up with his 
class. 

One who was a room-mate with him at this 
time, in writing to me, says : " We pursued to- 
gether our professional studies, under the instruc- 
tion of the elder Ware, equally revered and 
loved by us all ; of Professor Norton, who had no 
superior as a critic and interpreter of Scripture ; 
and of the lamented Frisbie, so earnest and elo- 
quent, and whose early death left a void in the 
department of Natural Religion and Moral Phi- 
losophy which no one else seemed qualified to fill. 
To the faithful improvement made by our departed 
friend of these great opportunities, his class- 
mates, his writings, and his ministry bear wit- 
ness." With the termination of these studies 
terminated the obstacles with which he had had to 
contend ; and, if knowledge obtained under diffi- 
culties is to be regarded as the most thorough 
and practical, it is well illustrated in the present 
instance. In 1822 he received his second aca- 
demic degree, A.M. 

Having closed his studies at the Divinity 
School, he was soon after, according to a custom 



MEMOIR. 13 

of those days, " approbated " to preach by the 
ministers of the Boston Association. He offi- 
ciated for the first time in the church of the Rev. 
Convers Francis, of Watertown. His profes- 
sional labors were in immediate and constant de- 
mand, — first at Barnstable, then at Medford, and 
afterward at Eastport, in the State of Maine. In 
1823 he was requested to go to Philadelphia, and 
supply the pulpit of the First Unitarian Church 
there, and also to preach to the Society at Balti- 
more, the pulpit of which had recently been 
vacated by Mr. Sparks. By arrangement, he con- 
tinued for six months to officiate for these two 
societies. By both he was invited to become 
their pastor ; but, in both cases, the invitation 
was declined. In 1824, he returned to Cam- 
bridge, and supplied various pulpits in that vi- 
cinity ; among others, the new society in Keene, 
N.H., whose invitation to settle he also de- 
clined. 

In all these efforts and decisions, Providence 
— unconsciously to himself — seemed to be 
guiding his steps, and preparing him for some 
important sphere of duty. At the period now 
reached, a movement had just been made by the 
Liberal Christians of Boston to organize and 
establish a new church and society for their 
nascent denomination. Channing, Norton, and 
Ware, with other distinguished clergymen and 
laymen, were zealously engaged in the under- 



14 MEMOIR. 

taking. To this end, a site had been selected 
at the extreme westerly part of the city. In 
1824 the corner-stone was laid in due form, and 
the building brought rapidly to completion. It 
took the corporate name of the Twelfth Congre- 
gational Society in Boston. In October of that 
year, it was solemnly dedicated to the worship 
of God, and opened to the public for divine service 
on the Sunday succeeding the dedication. 

In anticipation of an organized congregation, 
the proprietors of the church, for reasons satisfac- 
tory to themselves, authorized the building com- 
mittee to engage at once a preacher, and to settle 
a minister. Rev. Alexander Young, a recent 
graduate of the Divinity School, Cambridge, was 
the first candidate for the new pulpit. After 
preaching for a few weeks according to agree- 
ment, he received a unanimous call ; but it was 
declined for another offered him at the same time. 
The State authorities had set apart a day, near 
at hand, for public thanksgiving (Dec. 2) ; and 
a preacher was needed for the occasion. It so 
happened, that the subject of this memoir, at that 
time a stranger to the people of Boston, had 
preached on the Sunday previous at Dr. Lowell's, 
in the immediate vicinity of the new church ; 
his services leaving a most favorable impression. 
The committee of the Twelfth immediately sought 
him out, engaged him to supply their pulpit for 
that occasion, and also for the three succeeding 



MEMOIR. 15 

Sundays. Mr. Barrett, having accepted and ful- 
filled the engagement to the entire satisfaction of 
the committee and congregation, who had listened 
to him with intense interest, was invited, with en- 
tire unanimity, to take charge of the new society, 
and to receive ordination as its first minister. 

After mature deliberation, he accepted the call, 
saying, in his letter to the committee, that, 
" prompted alike by choice and a sense of duty 
to yield to your wishes so unanimously expressed, 
it is now my solemn determination, under the 
blessing of Heaven, to consecrate whatever my 
faculties are, or may become, to the promotion of 
the spiritual improvement and comfort of those 
who shall gather themselves around the altar at 
which you have invited me to minister." 

On the 9th of February, 1825, his ordination 
took place at the church in Chambers Street, 
as the first minister of the Twelfth Congrega- 
tional Society in the city of Boston. The churches 
of the denomination were largely and honora- 
bly represented. Dr. Lowell preached the ser- 
mon ; Drs. Walker and Ware, and Rev. Messrs. 
Palfrey, Green, and Parkman, assisting in the 
services. The exercises of the occasion fully 
sustained the reputation of those engaged in 
them for talent and Christian devotedness ; and 
they left a most favorable and deep impression on 
the minds of the community. A new day, they 
said, was dawning in the world of Christian 



16 MEMOIR. 

thought and improvement. Among the churches 
invited, the one at Wilton had not been forgotten ; 
and no member of the council was more kindly 
and cordially received than was the Rev. Thomas 
Beede, the early friend and teacher of the minis- 
ter elect, whose joyous and gratified feelings 
were manifest to all. To him was assigned the 
prayer of consecration; and it was alike appro- 
priate and impressive. 

The new minister entered upon the duties be- 
fore him without delay. He foresaw they were 
to be arduous. The Unitarian controversy, so 
called, was at the point of its culmination. The 
church of which he was the chosen minister was 
the first erected in the city by Unitarians. The 
other churches occupied by the denomination had 
come into their possession by natural descent, 
and by changes in thought and opinion brought 
about by time and progress. There was good 
reason to think, therefore, that all the movements 
of the society, as well as his own, would be 
watched with jealous and scrutinizing eyes by 
opposing and surrounding sects. Moreover, a 
congregation was to be gathered, whose materials, 
wholly new, were to be harmonized, brought into 
affinity of feeling and belief, and a church to be 
built up and organized on a broad, liberal, and 
substantial foundation. 

Upon this work he entered with energy and 
courage ; and it took but a short time for observ- 



MEMOIR. 17 

ing and discriminating minds to discern, that, in 
this case at least, " the right man was in the right 
place." The people who had gathered around 
him, drawn together from different denominations 
in the city, soon found that the pastor of their 
election was not a stripling, just from the walls 
of a literary institution, with an unformed char- 
acter and purposes, but a man — a true and a 
whole man — with a large share of common 
sense, with talents eminently practical, and with 
a degree of knowledge and insight equal to any 
occasion or emergency which might arise in the 
discharge of his many and responsible duties. 

In personal appearance, he was above rather 
than under the average height, indicating a good 
share of vital energy and activity. Compelled, 
from a defect in the eye or eyes, to the use of 
spectacles, there was, at times, seen through them 
or under them, by the most casual observer, a 
peculiar expression, which spoke of insight or 
meaning, more than could many words. Blend- 
ing with these were firmness and dignity, with 
courtesy and conciliation of demeanor and man- 
ners, which won from his people and associates 
an almost immediate and implicit confidence. A 
short time only was required to understand that 
he was one of those rare persons who think for 
themselves, and therefore are always ready with 
sound and sufficient reasons for the measures they 
propose. Offered with frankness and directness, 
2 



18 MEMOIR. 

they secured ready and cordial assent. "With 
these traits and others like them, there shone out 
a perfect integrity of purpose, and a high sense of 
honor. He scorned nothing more than mean- 
ness ; and the deliberate wrong-doer he repelled, 
if he did not wholly avoid. Later in his minis- 
try, he preached a sermon from the text, " I am 
a man." It was much admired, and often re- 
peated by request in other pulpits. It was a 
graphic delineation of the true man, without the 
slightest exhibition or consciousness of egotism. 
And yet, beyond a doubt, the moral elements 
within the preacher were, unconsciously, those 
from which the portrait was drawn. As he was 
at the first in this respect, so he was through life, 
even to the closing scene. His manliness never 
forsook him. 

In the organization of the society, his first 
movement was in the formation of a visible 
church, according to ecclesiastical usage. In the 
presence of Dr. Lowell, who conducted the usual 
ceremonies and services, the pastor offered a 
covenant, which was signed, first by himself, and 
then by those present. To the reader of these 
pages, it may seem wholly needless and even im- 
pertinent to remark, that he who had drawn up 
and signed this form of faith was a Christian, — 
a Christian, not only by birth and education, but 
also from profound thought, and the deepest con- 
victions of his soul. At the period, however, of 



MEMOIR. 19 

which we are writing, under the violent throes of 
a long-continued and bitter controversy, it had 
become only too common for other denominations 
to deny the Christian name to those who belonged 
to this branch of the Church universal. But, as 
in all others, so especially in this particular in- 
stance, it was wholly unjust, and without the 
slightest foundation in truth. 

This young clergyman, who had struggled so 
manfully for a liberal education, and to prepare 
himself for the Christian ministry, true to a sen- 
sitive conscience, and a mind logically inclined 
and trained, had not come to his work without 
reaching down to its foundation principles. His 
studies and exercises on the subject had been 
long and thorough ; and he never ceased his in- 
vestigations until every doubt had been removed. 
After a comprehensive study of all the evidences, 
internal as well as external, he was led to the 
solemn conclusion, that there could be no mis- 
take as to the authenticity and divine authority of 
the Holy Scriptures, or the truth of Christianity 
as a divine revelation ; not accepting these rec- 
ords, indeed, as verbally or plenarily inspired, but 
as containing undoubted revelations from God 
to men. Whatever, therefore, of moral and 
religious truth was distinctly taught in the Scrip- 
tures, and especially in the New Testament, au- 
thenticated still further, as he believed they were, 
by reason and intuition, he received, not only as 



20 MEMOIR. 

true, but as the highest and most sacred of all 
truths, — God's. New theories, as they success- 
ively appeared, he carefully investigated and 
weighed ; but, while they doubtless enlarged and 
quickened his spiritual aspirations and views, they 
never caused him to waver, we think, for a mo- 
ment, in his original conclusions. 

In despite of parental education and his earliest 
prepossessions, these united him with the Liberal 
Christians of the Channing school. Like them, 
he rejected the doctrine of the deity of Christ, 
and, consequently, the doctrine of the Trinity, 
because, like them, he could find no authority for 
it in the Bible ; and if he accepted, as he did, the 
belief of the divine inspiration of Jesus, it was be- 
cause he found it written there in letters of living 
light. One of the thoughts most familiar to his 
mind, and the one he was accustomed most fre- 
quently and energetically to express, was, that, if 
God had never broken the silence of the ages, — 
had never spoken to man, never revealed himself 
to the race, — then, of all creatures, we were the 
most miserable. In regard to all the other dis- 
puted doctrines of Christianity, he found himself, 
in like manner, coinciding with the earliest school 
of Unitarians. And with these intellectual con- 
clusions were mingled feelings the most devout. 
In a diary kept by him at this period, the exist- 
ence of which was not known, even to his own 
family, till after his departure, are to be found 
breathings and prayers of the truest piety. 



MEMOIR. 21 

In the covenant, therefore, which he had now 
offered and signed, were principles which had 
their basis alike in the teachings of the Bible, 
and the convictions of his own mind. The cove- 
nant was in these simple words : — 

" We, whose names are undersigned, do solemnly de- 
clare, that we believe the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments contain the revelations of God to man ; 
that we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, 
and Saviour of the world ; that we desire thankfully to 
accept salvation through him in the way presented in 
the gospel ; and we resolve, by the help of divine 
grace, to live in obedience to his holy commandments, 
looking unto the mercy of God unto eternal life." 

He administered the rite of Communion for the 
first time in the month of April, 1825 ; and, from 
the beginning, it was made manifest that this was 
a service in which he felt, and was to feel, a deep 
interest. Though not gifted, as many are, with 
the natural power of extemporaneous speech, yet 
he always began it with a short address, — some- 
thing rather new at that time, — which served 
to awaken deep feeling, and to leave impressions 
not easily forgotten. His prayers were short, but 
so earnest and sincere, that all hearts were borne 
up on the wings of devotion to the throne of 
grace ; and his whole manner was so serious 
and affectionate, so natural and so pleasant, that 
every communicant seemed, as it were, carried 



22 MEMOIR. 

back to the very scene and hour when the com- 
mand was first given, " Do this in remembrance 
of me." 

In his view, the whole efficacy and value of 
this rite consisted in the sincere love for the 
Saviour which it inspired and betokened. He 
failed not to preach on the subject from time to 
time, and on such occasions preached with more 
than his usual unction and effect. One of these 
sermons, — the first, we believe, — entitled " Ex- 
cuses for the Neglect of the Communion," was 
published, by the American Unitarian Associa- 
tion, as a tract ; and it had a wide and long- 
continued circulation. But further than this he 
did not feel it wise, or even right, to go. In his 
intercourse, therefore, with his parishioners, un- 
less they introduced the subject, he was reticent ; 
and they soon came to learn, that, if they were 
ever to engage in this rite, it must be, not to 
gratify their minister, nor to enlarge the bounda- 
ries of the visible church, but from a spontaneous 
love of the Master and his table, which was spread 
so freely for all. Nevertheless, the church rap- 
idly increased, and soon became as numerous as 
others in the denomination. During his minis- 
try, lasting thirty-three years, there were added 
to the church over three hundred members, 
— an average of which would compare favor- 
ably with most of the churches in the State or 
country. 



MEMOIR. 23 

His next movement in the organization of the 
society disclosed another leading trait of his char- 
acter. By disposition and temperament, as well 
as from principle and duty, he was a Christian 
philanthropist. His heart was warm, tender, and 
benevolent. He had deep sympathies for the 
poor, the ignorant, and the oppressed, and a 
deep and persistent interest in all public insti- 
tutions for the diffusion of knowledge and the 
relief of human suffering. The charities of his 
people, therefore, and their considerate and wise 
distribution, were among the earliest things that 
claimed and took a strong hold on his atten- 
tion. For the attainment of these objects, he 
formed the male members of his society into a 
Benevolent Association. By the articles which 
he drew up for its government, it was made the 
duty of its members to ascertain the nature and 
wants of all the leading benevolent institutions 
in the city. This called out, for a succession of 
years, many valuable reports, embracing histori- 
cal and statistical facts ; and, by their pleas and 
recommendations, formed channels of a discrim- 
inating charity to not a few of the best of our 
philanthropic institutions. 

Not long after, and again at his suggestion, 
a Female Benevolent Association was formed 
(1827), which went into immediate operation. 
If we are not mistaken, it was among the first 
of those sewing circles connected with churches, 



24 MEMOIR. 

for charitable purposes, which, since that time, 
have become so general and so useful. It called 
out at once the latent benevolence of the parish ; 
it concentrated their feelings upon the most 
deserving objects ; and it developed the social 
element by frequent and profitable meetings. 
Through his whole ministry, he made of it a most 
efficient instrument of charity, in co-operation 
with its many earnest and active members. 

In addition to these, he established in his par- 
ish an annual collection for the poor ; and, as there 
were few or no recipients for it among his own 
people, he, with his deacons, became its almoners 
among deserving objects beyond the pale of the 
society. 

But his benevolent sympathies were not con- 
fined to the limits of his own parish. He took 
an early and warm interest in the " Ministry to 
the Poor," of which Dr. Tuckerman was the 
first and active agent. Subsequently, he gave 
his earnest aid to the establishment of the 
" Fraternity of Churches," by which that minis- 
try to the poor was placed on a permanent found- 
ation. A constant attendant on its quarterly 
meetings, he watched and scanned all its pro- 
ceedings with a vigilant eye, and was its honored 
President for six years (1852 to 1858). Indeed, 
he was never weary in promoting its interests. 
In addition to these philanthropical labors, it 
should be mentioned, that he was an active mem- 



MEMOIE. 25 

ber or executive officer of quite a number of our 
public charitable institutions, and of these not 
a mere nominal member or officer, as is too often 
the case, but one ever ready alike to plan, to 
suggest, to counsel, and to act. And, in justice, 
let us add, that it was not alone in bodily and 
mental labor that he manifested benevolence and 
charity ; but it may be said as truly of him, as it 
was of Charles Lamb by a recent biographer, that 
" he gave away greatly, when the extent of his 
means is taken into consideration." 

In the further organization of his parish, one of 
his earliest movements manifested still another 
trait of his character ; namely, a strong faith in 
popular education, especially of the moral and 
spiritual nature of the young. Yery soon after 
his ordination, he began to lay broadly and deep- 
ly the foundations of a Sunday school. At this 
time (1825), there was but one school of the kind, 
connected with a liberal society in the city. But, 
fortunately, at Wilton and Concord, he had 
learned the nature and value of this institution, 
and had become its earnest, as he was ever after 
its constant, friend and advocate. 

As a first step, he formed a Bible class of 
young ladies, to whom he gave a course of re- 
ligious instruction, on a week-day, as a nursery 
for future teachers ; and, soon after, made ar- 
rangements to meet the younger children of his 
parish at the vestry, on Sundays, at noon-time, 



26 MEMOIR. 

for catechetical instruction. This was in 1825-6. 
Subsequently (early in 1827), he called a meeting 
for the organization of a more perfect Sunday 
school. Rules and regulations for its govern- 
ment, drawn up by himself, were cordially and 
unanimously adopted. The pastor, seizing the 
occasion, in words that seemed to burn, described 
the nature and character of the work in which 
the newly elected teachers were about to engage. 
The standard indicated was a lofty and spiritual 
one, expressed in language and tones betoken- 
ing knowledge and conviction. Not a few were 
disposed at first to shrink from the duty as thus 
portrayed. But this standard, high as it was, 
kept no one away ; and the power and influence 
of this address never ceased to be felt in the 
school. So true is it, that the human heart, in 
its best and calmest moments, is ever ready to 
respond to that in it which is the highest and 
best. 

This school rapidly increased, became large in 
numbers, most efficient and useful in action, and 
maintained a high reputation to the end of his 
long ministry. Dr. Ellis, in his biographical 
notice of Dr. Barrett in the " Christian Register," 
soon after his decease, speaking of the Society, 
remarks, " that it had, for many years, one of 
the most flourishing Sunday schools in the city ; 
and it was administered with fidelity in consist- 
ency with the modest but paramount objects of 



MEMOIR. 27 

such an institution, by superintendents and a 
body of teachers who gladly co-operated in the 
aims of their pastor." And he takes the occasion 
to add, " that we need mention only the names 
of the late esteemed Mayor Seaver and of Mr. 
, both also deacons of the church, to re- 
mind many of our readers of the good repute of 
the Sunday School of the Twelfth Congregational 
Society." Occupying, as this school did, a large 
place in the thoughts and affections of the pastor, 
he was always to be seen promptly at his teachers' 
meetings, engaging in conversations and discus- 
sions, contributing able expositions of Scripture, 
and, in divers other ways, affording to the school 
every possible aid and encouragement. The 
children all loved him ; listened to him with 
fixed attention when he spoke ; and, by constant 
attendance and improvement, were emulous to 
win his notice and approbation. He enjoyed few 
things in life more than his intercourse with this 
school and its band of united and faithful teachers ; 
and the recollections of his influence and labors 
in this humble sphere of usefulness must add 
much to the measure of his bliss in the higher 
sphere to which he has now been translated. 

From a like spirit, his people at an early day 
were encouraged and aided in the formation of 
an adult parish library. Very likely, the idea 
of it was suggested by the " ministerial library " 
at Wilton, the advantages of which to the minis- 



28 MEMOIR. 

ter, to himself, and to the parish, had been so 
strongly impressed on his mind. It was in suc- 
cessful operation for many years ; and diffused, 
among the young and old, a large amount of 
religious and general information. A juvenile 
library, a novelty in those days, was soon added, 
the books for which, for a number of years, were 
of his own careful and conscientious selection, 
and which, in after- time, ever increasing in vol- 
umes, became an unfailing fountain of delight 
and instruction to numerous and successive 
classes of children. 

A like zeal he carried with him into other 
departments of education. The inhabitants of 
the ward in which he resided, spontaneously 
elected him for a successive number of years to 
represent them at the Board of the General 
School Committee of the city. Here, by his ex- 
perience and practical knowledge, by his sugges- 
tions and assiduity, by his faithful examinations 
and other labors, he made himself a useful and 
important member. In a like spirit, his attach- 
ment to his Alma Mater — the University at 
Cambridge — was ever earnest and warm, his 
labors unintermitted, and not without their value. 
Of this institution he was an overseer, by election 
of the State, from 1835 to 1852 ; and, for fifteen 
years, chairman of one of its standing commit- 
tees, — the Committee for the Examination of 
the Students in Natural Philosophy or Physics. 



MEMOIR. 29 

Watchful of her every interest, dear to him as 
the apple of his eye, he left nothing undone to 
ward off any danger to be foreseen, or to promote 
and secure her highest and most lasting welfare. 
In grateful return, she rewarded him with the 
highest honor, which, in his profession, she had 
to bestow, — the degree of D.D., in 1847. 

Another prominent trait in the character of 
Dr. Barrett was his profound love of Christian 
truth, and earnest zeal for its wider, its universal 
■diffusion. Entering upon the stage of life when 
the Unitarian controversy was in full progress 
and development, it did not fail to receive at his 
hands, while engaged in his theological course, 
under teachers who themselves were the leading 
spirits engaged in the holy warfare, a most thor- 
ough and exhaustive study ; and, as we have 
before said, his decision was in favor of Liberal 
Christianity. While, therefore, on the one hand, 
the pure light of the gospel, " the truth as it is 
in Jesus," permeated his mind and heart with a 
joy unspeakable ; so, on the other, the popular or 
prevailing errors in theology filled him with a 
sadness most profound, and against which his 
whole nature seemed to rebel. Ever uppermost 
in thought, therefore, was the obligation of every 
Christian to aid in the diffusion of the one, and 
to eradicate and limit, as far as possible, the life 
and influence of the other. 

As an important instrumentality to such an 



30 MEMOIR. 

end, he was among the foremost to urge and ad- 
vocate the organization of the American Unita- 
rian Association. Established in 1825, he was 
chosen a member of its first Executive Commit- 
tee, and was re-elected to the same office for 
fifteen years successively. In 1861 he was again 
returned to the Board, and continued in the faith- 
ful discharge of the duties of the office till the 
year preceding his death, at which time he de- 
clined to be a candidate. At an early stage in 
its history, he acted as its Secretary. In the dis- 
charge of the many duties devolving upon him 
in these relations, he was most untiring and effi- 
cient. His wise counsel, and shrewd and prac- 
tical suggestions, were relied on as elements of 
success. The second tract published by this as- 
sociation, " One Hundred Scripture Arguments 
for the Unitarian Faith," was from his pen ; and, 
during his connection with it, he contributed a 
number of other tracts of marked ability, all of 
which had a wide circulation. Some of them are 
still published. 

In 1839, having obtained leave of absence from 
his society, he went to the West as a missionary 
of the Association, Absent three months, he 
made a journey four thousand miles South and 
West, travelled in fifteen of the United States, 
visited forty cities, and towns unnumbered, in 
that growing section of our common country ; 
preached wherever there was a Unitarian pul- 



MEMOIR. 61 

pit ; selected new fields of missionary labor, and 
gathered valuable materials for guidance in the 
future. His loving and liberal people supplied 
his pulpit for him in his absence ; the Rev. 
George E. Ellis (now Dr. E., of Charlestown) 
performing that duty most acceptably. As early 
as 1827, he had originated the " Book and Pam- 
phlet Society," assisted by the young men of 
his own parish, and of other Unitarian parishes, 
which, for many years, was an auxiliary to the 
Association for the gratuitous and widest diffusion 
of their excellent tracts, and other larger publi- 
cations. 

The same love of pure religious truth, and the 
obligation to defend and diffuse it, led him, as 
early as 1824, to become the editor of a weekly 
religious paper, called " The Christian," pub- 
lished in Philadelphia ; also, to act as one of the 
editors of the " Christian Register," associated 
with Dr. Gannett and Lewis Tappan, Esq., in 
1826, — and again with the same paper and other 
associates in 1810-42. He was also an asso- 
ciate editor with the late Rev. E. Q. Sewall, of 
the " Unitarian Advocate," published in Boston, 
1830-31. His contributions to the " Christian 
Examiner," to the "Liberal Preacher," and other 
periodicals, may be traced to the same source. 
And it was to the same earnest and abiding zeal 
for the cause and prevalence of truth that we 
ascribe, in the earliest years of his ministry, the 



32 MEMOIR. 

character and tone of so much of his preaching, 
in which, while special care was taken to spare 
individuals and avoid personalities, theological 
errors and false views of religion were boldly 
refuted and sternly rebuked, and the simple 
truths of Christianity urged home with great 
power and effect. 

But, while he was thus laboring both within 
and beyond the boundaries of his chosen sphere 
of action, he never permitted himself to for- 
get or neglect the most exalted and exacting 
of the duties of his profession, — preparation for 
the pulpit, and the services and solemnities of 
the sabbath. With strong and well-disciplined 
intellectual faculties, he was practical rather 
than speculative, logical rather than imaginative, 
wise rather than profound. With tendencies of 
thought like these, he was conservative rather 
than reformatory ; but his conservatism was the 
legitimate and the true, which, clinging with 
tenacity to the good, the long and well tried, 
made him quite as eager to accept the new when 
it had been adequately and satisfactorily tested 
by argument or experiment. In all things he 
was alike liberal and progressive. 

Dr. Barrett loved his study and his books. Few 
loved them better, or used them to a wiser or 
better purpose. A diligent and analytical reader, 
he aimed to keep abreast with the newest dis- 
coveries in science and theology; and, conse- 



MEMOIR. 33 

quently, came to his preparatory labors with a 
full and ready mind. Always happy in the selec- 
tion of his themes and texts, the latter were, at 
times, sufficiently quaint ; and not infrequently 
he manifested a peculiar ingenuity in the devel- 
opment and management of the former. " Old 
shoes and clouted," and " Ephraim is a cake 
not turned," will be remembered as instances 
with singular pleasure by most of those who 
were his hearers, whether at home or abroad. 

Outside of the sacred desk, as is well known, 
he was the most unobtrusive of men. He was 
ever ready to escape as far as possible from public 
observation. But no sooner had he crossed the 
threshold of his pulpit, than all his usual un- 
affected diffidence seemed to disappear. Once 
there, he failed not " to magnify his office." For- 
getting himself and all that was outward, he 
immediately and entirely became absorbed and 
engrossed in the duties before him. 

His presence and mien in the pulpit were 
peculiarly and eminently ministerial. As he rose 
to speak, Cowper's description of the true evan- 
gelical preacher would occur to every intelligent 
observer, — 

" Simple, grave, sincere : 

There stands the messenger of truth; there stands 
The legate of the skies ! his theme divine, 
His office sacred, his credentials clear." 

In utterance and manner, Dr. Barrett was un- 
3 



34 MEMOIR. . 

feignedly earnest and fervent ; distinct as he was 
forcible, — at times, perhaps, too forcible and too 
emphatic ; but occasionally, especially in descrip- 
tions of nature, falling into an artless melody of 
tone, — which, combined, never failed to take a 
strong hold on the attention of his hearers, and 
left impressions not easily effaced. 

Of course, as a preacher he was equally ac- 
ceptable to all. Every preacher, every speaker, 
perhaps, has a manner or a mannerism, — a style 
of gesture and intonation peculiarly his own, — 
unpleasant it may be to strangers, but unnoticed 
or scarcely heeded by constant hearers. One of his 
recent eulogists has remarked on this point, " that 
he " (Dr. Barrett) " could not play very well 
on that vocal instrument, finer than clarion or 
violin ; and, to those demanding nicely ordered 
gestures and delicately graduated tones, he was 
not specially attractive in the desk. But, upon 
some of us, there were few men who won so much 
as he by his delivery. It had the prime mer- 
its of heartiness, frankness, lucid language, and 
glowing thought." This is most truthfully and 
beautifully expressed. And of the most distin- 
guished preachers of whom we read or hear, no 
higher or better praise is accorded. Of Dr. 
Arnold, of the Rugby School, whose praise is in 
all the churches, it is said by his biographer, 
" If sincerity and self-forgetting earnestness ever 
made an orator impressive, it was he ; " but, it is 



MEMOIE. 35 

added, " there were sudden gratings of his voice, 
which denoted, ever and anon, that his own warm 
and excited feelings were moved by the argument 
he was enforcing." And of Eobertson, the great 
preacher of Brighton, England, we are told, " that, 
though he was carried away by his subject, he 
was sufficiently lord over his own excitement 
to prevent any loud or unseemly demonstration 
of it." — "It was excitement reined in by will, 
and made his audience to glow with his own 
fire." 

In like manner it was with Dr. Barrett. " If 
sincerity and self-forgetting earnestness ever made 
an orator impressive," it was so in his case ; and 
" if, ever and anon, there were certain gratings 
of his voice, it denoted that his own feelings were 
moved by the argument he was enforcing." Or if, 
again, like Robertson, " he spoke at times under 
tremendous excitement," " carried away by his 
subject," it was excitement reined in " for the 
most part " by will, and " made his audience to 
glow with his own fire." But, however this may 
be, certain it is, that it was mainly by the charac- 
ter and style of his preaching — fervent, evan- 
gelical, wise, and independent — that he kept his 
large church, notwithstanding the fluctuations of 
population to which it was peculiarly subjected, 
filled constantly with a full and appreciative 
congregation, through the largest, not to say the 
entire, portion of his very long ministry. 



36 MEMOIR. 

To make this delineation true to the life, or in 
any degree complete, it should be added, that, 
making no pretensions to the gift of extempo- 
raneous speech, he would nevertheless go to his 
vestry, at appointed seasons, week after week, 
with nothing but his old and well-thumbed Bible 
in his hand, — as well known to his parishioners 
as his own person, — with a few notes on its 
narrow margin to assist his memory ; and there 
he would pour himself out in expositions of some 
of the most difficult passages of Scripture, flood- 
ing his hearers with new light, and enforcing 
their moral and sublime truths with a power and 
eloquence, of a homely, practical kind, indeed, 
but which was sure to enchain by the hour the 
attention of his listeners, and who were made all 
the better for it the remainder of their days. At 
the communion-table, at the Sunday school, at the 
teachers' meeting, in speech, it was the same ; 
not graceful, not rhetorical, according to the 
schools, but something far better, — having for 
its basis a sincerity, an earnestness, and a glow- 
ing warmth of unaffected piety, which gave to his 
words a charm and an influence far surpassing 
the proudest efforts of eloquence merely artificial 
and scholastic. 

Other traits must not be forgotten. Alike by 
constitution and temperament, he was kind, cor- 
dial, genial, sympathetic, and warm-hearted. As 
we have intimated, abroad and among strangers, 



MEMOIR. 37 

his diffidence from his youth up was not only 
excessive, but at times even oppressive. It led 
him to seek the retired corner, the back pew, or 
the lowly seat. But when at home, or among 
personal friends and professional brethren, his 
kindliness, his playfulness, his quiet humor, the 
warmth and frankness of his speech, made him 
alike endearing and endeared. Perhaps no hus- 
band, father, friend, or pastor was ever more 
respected and beloved than he. 

In the discharge of his parochial duties, he 
was conscientious and untiring. In seasons of 
sickness, of bereavement, and of severe trial, he 
was prompt and ready. But these duties, always 
difficult and painful to perform, were met and 
answered on his part, more by the manifestations 
of his sympathetic nature, than by many words 
or outward professions ; but the words spoken, 
few as they were, and all the more because they 
were few, made him a true " son of consola- 
tion," and gained for him the deep and abiding 
affections of his parishioners. An instance or 
two by way of illustration : — 

One of his earliest parishioners, a lady, had 
set out in her garden, the year of his ordination, 
a rose-bush, and, from the circumstance just 
named, called it the Barrett rose. As a token of 
her regard, she made up a bouquet of its first and 
most beautiful flowers, and sent it to him. Ever 
after, as the season returned, she failed not to 



38 MEMOIR. 

send him, from the same bush, though trans- 
planted more than once, a like token of her con- 
tinued attachment and friendship down to the 
last year of his life. Even then it had only been 
delayed for a day or two by her own severe ill- 
ness, — delayed, but not forgotten. On the day 
of his burial, as he lay in the church on his 
funeral bier, the coffin-lid open, it was placed 
in his own unconscious hand, by a trusty mes- 
senger, in the presence of a numerous assem- 
bly who had gathered there to pay the last 
tribute to his worth, and to convey his honored 
remains to their final resting-place, — a lot at 
Mount Auburn, adjoining the lady's own, and 
which she had purchased long before, prepared, 
and presented to him and his family, so that 
her own remains might rest side by side with 
theirs. 

Another instance occurs to us. A Boston mer- 
chant, residing in a neighboring town, became so 
deeply interested in his preaching, and so much 
attached to him personally, that he joined him- 
self to his church, and walked to the city con- 
stantly (it was before the day of horse railroads) 
to attend on his services. Sympathizing with his 
pastor's earnestness in the support and diffusion 
of a pure Christian faith, he sent for him in his 
last sickness, and, as a proof of his confidence and 
love, devised in his will, under the advisement 
of Dr. Barrett, quite a generous sum in aid of 



MEMOIR. 39 

feeble Unitarian societies, and made him its prin- 
cipal trustee. It is pleasant to remember, that 
among the last duties of his active and beneficent 
life was the preaching to some of these societies, 
and expending, through the labors of others, the 
income derived from this fund. 

In the same direction of sympathy, kindliness, 
and courtesy, there is suggested another trait, 
which had a marked prominence in his charac- 
ter. It was in " his love for, and sympathy with, 
young men, particularly for such as were prepar- 
ing for the ministry." From one of these we 
have this voluntary but expressive testimony : — 

" Different from many of his brethren, he always 
welcomed the new-comers ! During the last six years 
of his life, I became quite intimately acquainted with 
him ; and, although he was my senior by more than 
thirty years, in our walks together, and in our frequent 
intercourse, he was always so friendly, so loving, so 
joyous, that, were it not for his ' almond blossoms,' he 
would have seemed more ' brother ' than ' father.' " 

Another of these younger brethren says : — 

" There is no aged man whom I loved so much. 
He has been my good counsellor, my good friend, in so 
many ways. . . . He first encouraged me to enter the 
Divinity School. And what a benevolent friend he 
was to me while there ! ... It fills me with the 
deepest sorrow that I shall never again behold his 
kindly face, — never again draw near to his heart, so 
overflowing with Christian excellences." 



40 MEMOIR. 

Daily at the rooms of the American Unitarian 
Association, the common rendezvous of the pro- 
fession alike for the young and the old, he was 
not only ever ready to extend to these young 
men, waiting there for aid, the hand of sympathy 
and welcome ; but, possessing more than a com- 
mon insight into character, he would discern, 
intuitively as it were, their latent capabilities or 
sterling goodness of heart, or both, and would 
seek out or make frequent opportunities for their 
employment and usefulness. We have now in 
our recollection more than one, who, long re- 
pelled and discouraged, were in this way brought 
at length into consideration and prominence, and 
became useful and valuable members of the pro- 
fession, if not its burning and shining lights. 
Such loved him while he lived, and mourn him 
now that he is gone. 

Another trait of a like emotional nature should 
not be omitted : — 

" Nothing to me," said one who stood in near re- 
lationship to him, " was more beautiful in his charac- 
ter than his warm, tender love and profound reverence 
for his parents. Even after he had become himself a 
father, and his own head was ' silvered o'er with age,' 
he never forgot to make his yearly visit to them. How 
kind, how gentle, how respectful, he was ! Father, 
mother, were sacred names to him. How he warmed 
and encouraged their hearts ! Tiie eldest son, himself 
a parent, he was a child there. No wonder, that at 



MEMOIR. 41 

the last, both father and mother must have felt that 
there must be some saving virtue in the liberal faith, 
if it could thus exalt and beautify the character, and 
make so devoted, so dutiful, and so good a son as 
Samuel ! * Respect and reverence for the aged of all 
classes was, I believe, in my brother, both an emotion 
and a principle. He could never brook in others any 
thing like slight or neglect of the old." 

It was the same in regard to his fraternal feel- 
ings and relations. Though separated at so early 
a period, and at so great a distance, from the 
parental home and family, his tenderness toward 
them, and interest in their welfare, was never for 
a moment, or in any degree, abated. On the con- 
trary, it was by his pecuniary aid, and other sacri- 
fices, that three of his brothers were enabled to 
obtain a collegiate education ; and an only sister, 
whom he tenderly loved, enjoyed the privilege, for 
three years, of receiving the instructions of one 
of the best of schools in the vicinity of Boston, — 
Miss Prescott's, at G-roton. Strong proofs these 
of his true fraternal affection, of his high sense of 
duty, and his truly Christian benevolence ! 

* His mother died at Springfield, N.Y., in 1836, at the age 
of sixty -two ; and his father, in 1844, at the same place, aged 
seventy-fire. They were both members of the Presbyterian 
Church, of which he was a deacon. He is represented, by 
those who knew him best, as a person of more tban common 
intelligence, integrity, and enterprise ; and she, as of a gentle, 
womanly nature, modest and retiring, but one of the best of 
mothers. 



42 MEMOIR. 

But underlying and controlling all this natural 
diffidence, tenderness, and benevolence of feeling, 
there was an abounding share of firmness, forti- 
tude, and high moral courage. In every case 
where the cause of truth was at stake, a duty in 
question, or a principle involved, he never failed 
to manifest the most unyielding resolution and 
quiet firmness. Nothing, in such cases, could 
move or daunt him ; neither frowns on the one 
hand, nor flatteries on the other. As a case in 
point: He was a member of the ecclesiastical 
council for the trial of the late Rev. John Pier- 
pont. He soon found that a majority of the 
council — among whom were some of the oldest 
and wisest of his brethren, those whom he re- 
spected the most and loved the best, and from 
whom at any time he would differ with extreme 
reluctance — were in favor of a condemnatory 
verdict on the many charges preferred against 
him by his justly irritated parish. Dr. Barrett did 
not hesitate to avow his opinion, that such a de- 
cision would be alike unjust and impolitic ; voted 
in opposition at every stage of their proceedings, 
and used otherwise all the influence he could 
command to prevent a conviction. Defeated in 
this direction, he labored in every consistent way, 
so long as the council was in session, to mitigate 
the terms of the verdict. In this, he and his 
friends succeeded to their entire satisfaction. 
The final decision was just. 



MEMOIR. 43 

The same moral courage he carried with him 
to the pulpit. It is true, that in consequence of 
his general conservative principles, or, rather, 
from what he considered the dictates of wisdom 
and prudence, those topics usually called " ex- 
citing " were not frequently introduced into his 
discourses. As a general rule, he was decided 
in his belief, that such preaching was the cause 
of more evil than good. But when the fitting 
time came ; when from some passing event of 
great moment, some stirring calamity or crime, 
the public mind was generally aroused, and par- 
tisan feeling hushed, and was willing to listen, — 
then, whether the subject was duelling or intem- 
perance or slavery, or any other form of indul- 
gence or corruption, fashionable or unfashionable, 
none spoke more heroically, or rebuked with a 
more intrepid voice : and his words were heeded 
all the more, because of his usual reticence and 
discretion. But not always ; for we recall more 
than one instance in which pews were made 
vacant by his independent and decided reproba- 
tion of popular sins. 

It was the same in regard to the late war- 
He deprecated a civil strife. He had hoped for a 
peaceful solution of the difficulty. But no sooner 
had the first gun been fired at Sumter, than he 
ranged himself immediately on the side of the 
North and of nationality, and never wavered in 
his convictions and hopes to the last. He hated 



44 MEMOIR. 

slavery as he loved liberty, and, fortunately, lived 
long enough to see his expectations as to the 
war fully realized. His patriotism was one of 
the moving springs of his whole being. His 
discourses on the Landing of the Forefathers, 
on Fast and Thanksgiving days, were instinct 
with this spirit, and were models of their kind. 

To resume our narration. In 1832 he was 
married to Mary Susan, daughter of W. P. Green- 
wood, Esq., of Boston, and sister of the Rev. 
F. W. P. Greenwood, D.D., Minister of King's 
Chapel, by whom, and at which place, they were 
united in the holy band of wedlock. This attach- 
ment and union was singularly fortunate ; uniting 
him to a most estimable and accomplished com- 
panion, and securing the sanctuary of a happy 
home for the remainder of his days. They were 
the parents of eight children, — four sons and 
four daughters, — all of whom are still living, 
happy in the present, and prophesying, by their 
early lives, usefulness and true success in the 
future. 

In 1839 there was a centennial celebration in 
the town of Wilton. It was an occasion of great 
interest, not only to its inhabitants, but to all 
who had ever dwelt in the place. The Abbots, 
the Peabodys, the Livermores, the Burtons, and 
the Greeles were there. Dr. Barrett was one 
of the invited guests. To him was assigned a 
part in the services at the church, and one of the 



MEMOIR. 45 

speeches at the banquet-table. In this address 
he took occasion to pay a glowing but truthful 
tribute to the Oberlin of this " hilly and rocky" 
region, — him " who had poured upon his head 
the waters of baptism ; from whose hand he had 
received for the first time the elements of the 
holy communion ; and to whom, as pastor, in- 
structor, and friend, he was under obligations 
that cannot be cancelled." And this tribute of 
gratitude was not limited to the individual, but 
was poured out with equal warmth and sincerity 
on the people of the town, " to not a few of whom 
he was indebted for acts of great kindness ; " 
on their well-devised system of public schools ; 
and generally on " the intellectual, moral, and 
religious habits and privileges of the town," — 
and closed with this significant query : " More- 
over, sir, what town in the Union, of equal popu- 
lation, ever, in the same number of years, sent 
so few of her sons to prison, or so many to col- 
lege ? " 

At a still later period in life, he made another 
visit to Wilton, and preached in the same ancient 
house and pulpit, from which, in his earlier years, 
the dews of divine grace had fallen so refresh- 
ingly on his own head. The occasion called out 
a larger attendance than usual ; among them, the 
oldest inhabitants of the town. Indeed, the church 
was filled. As the services proceeded, and the 
people listened and hung upon his words, they 



46 MEMOIR. 

could hardly realize, that this Boanerges, this 
prophet, speaking now with so much of author- 
ity and power, was the same person as the child 
Samuel, a pupil once of their former pastor, and 
whose call and spiritual culture had been re- 
ceived in this " court of the Lord." 

At a later day, an intelligent lady of the place, 
one of the auditors on that occasion, said to me, 
" that she should never forget the sermon preached 
on the afternoon of that day." When asked the 
subject of it, she answered, " It was about the 
' shield with the two sides ; ' " and then feelingly 
added, that " in her solitary moments, and fre- 
quently at other times, the thoughts contained 
in that sermon came floating back, and haunted 
her memory constantly. She only wished she 
could hear it again, or read it from the printed 
page." 

In 1847, the society, in circumstances then 
the most prosperous, resolved to raise, by sub- 
scription, a sum amply sufficient to pay off a 
debt incurred at an early period in its history, 
and subsequently increased by repairs and other 
expenditures. The sum, though comparatively 
large, was easily raised, the society set entirely 
free of indebtedness, and the church " put in a 
state more gratifying as to its general appearance 
than it had ever before exhibited." The pastor 
gave fresh interest to his preaching by new trains 
of thought, and new courses of instruction ; the 



MEMOIR. 47 

Sunday school continued to increase and prosper ; 
and the varied rills of benevolence which he at 
the first had set in motion were not permitted to 
slacken in their course. 

In 1850 he preached his " Quarter-century 
Sermons." In these, with a graphic pen, he 
recounted the origin of the society, its rapid 
growth, and its uniform prosperity and success. 
At the close of the second of these discourses, 
he set forth some of his own labors, with a mod- 
esty and reserve characteristic of the man, and 
took occasion to say, " There never, perhaps, ex- 
isted a more united people than you have been. 
No root of bitterness has at any time, to my 
knowledge, sprung up amongst you. Like broth- 
ers and sisters, you have dwelt together in peace 
and love." This is the generous testimony that 
he bears to the conduct of his people. For him- 
self, he adds : " I have been happy, possibly too 
happy. . . . Twenty-five more pleasant years than 
I have passed with you, have probably at no time 
fallen to the lot of another minister. Whatever 
awaits me in future, the past is secure ; and I 
shall always look back upon the long portion of 
my life spent here with feelings of joy, tempered 
only by the sense of my own imperfections, and 
with fervent gratitude to Almighty God." And 
he closed with admonitions and encouragements 
of a most elevating, cheerful, and hopeful na- 
ture. 



48 MEMOIR. 

These discourses made a quickening and last- 
ing impression on the minds and hearts of his 
hearers. By them they were reminded, and made 
to realize, as never before, the indefatigable in- 
dustry and entire devotedness of their pastor, 
and felt at once how much he must need, and 
how well he deserved, a respite from his labors. 
Immediately and spontaneously they granted him 
a leave of four months ; continuing his salary, 
and supplying his pulpit at their own cost. This 
offer, as he said, " generous as it was unexpect 
ed," he gratefully accepted. He availed himsel 
of it to visit Europe. He sailed from Boston in 
May, and returned in November. While abroad, 
he saw much, and enjoyed more. In the exer- 
cise of a natural sagacity, studying men, man- 
ners, and institutions, as well as objects in nature, 
taste, and art, he came home laden with the 
treasures and experiences which the Old World 
has to offer to the visitor from the New ; but his 
heart never deflected for a moment from his 
allegiance and love to the latter. On the con- 
trary, he valued and admired all the more the 
governments, institutions, manners, and pros- 
pects which the New had to offer the Old. He 
was welcomed back with gladness and joy. A 
series of discourses immediately followed on suc- 
cessive Sundays, calling together large audiences, 
who listened with gratified attention to the re- 
sults of his wide observation and wise reflections 



MEMOIR. 49 

under the new circumstances in which he had 
been placed. 

His customary labors and duties were promptly 
resumed, and as steadily prosecuted for the next 
decade of years. And it is but just and proper 
to state here, that the appreciation of these, as 
well as of his talents and other gifts, had not 
been, and were not subsequently, confined to his 
own parish, or to his own circle of friends. As 
early as 1825-6, he had been elected chaplain to 
the Senate of Massachusetts ; and during his min- 
istry he preached, by invitation, an Anniversary 
Sermon for the Female Orphan Asylum, one for 
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 
one for the Asylum for Indigent Boys, a Dudleian 
Lecture before the Officers and Students of Har- 
vard College, an Address before the Berry-street 
Ministerial Conference, and one before the Grand 
Lodge of Massachusetts. 

This appreciation is further indicated by his 
publications, which were yielded to the press only 
at the urgent request of his own people, oftener 
denied than granted, or by others. They in- 
clude discourses preached as above stated or in 
his own pulpit, discourses preached at ordina- 
tions and installations, sermons printed in the 
" Liberal Preacher," a number of valuable tracts 
published by the American Unitarian Associa- 
tion, and various articles in the " Christian 
4 



50 MEMOIR. 

Examiner," the " Christian Advocate, " and other 
periodicals. 

It was under circumstances and encourage- 
ments like these that he recommenced after his 
return from abroad, and continued to prosecute, 
the work assigned to him by the great Head of 
the Church. But, in 1853-4, a cloud not bigger 
than a man's hand appeared to excite anxious 
solicitude on the part of both pastor and people. 
At this time it was that a current of emigration 
began to set from the portion of the city where 
his church was located, toward another section of 
the city, and to the surrounding villages, where 
residences either more desirable or economical 
could be procured. Judicious measures were 
seasonably taken to check, or in some way to 
counteract, this threatened danger. But neither 
the labors of the pastor, nor the zeal and ener- 
gies of his people, could do much to avert it. 
The natural sources upon which the church 
relied for its usual supply were, by one of those 
revolutions not uncommon in great and growing 
cities, evidently and rapidly drying up. 

In 1858, therefore, — the difficulty increasing 
so as to make some more decisive remedy neces- 
sary, — Dr. Barrett sent to his people a letter of 
resignation ; saying, " Many things remind me, 
that the time has arrived, when, for myself, relief 
from the burdens of the clerical office will soon 
be needful, and when, without the aid of a 



MEMOIR. 51 

younger hand and a fresher spirit than I now 
possess, the interests of our beloved parish can- 
not much longer be satisfactorily advanced." 

This resignation was necessarily yet most re- 
luctantly accepted, accompanied with such ex- 
pressions and tokens on the part of his people 
as could not but have been most soothing and 
gratifying to his much-tried and anxious feelings. 
In view of his relinquishment of all duties and 
claims, on the settlement of a colleague, and as a 
token of esteem and affection, they voted him 
a gratuity of six thousand dollars, and bore " a 
cheerful and grateful testimony, that, with an 
evangelical earnestness and a vital faith, he had 
not failed to declare unto them the whole counsel 
of God, and to point out plainly and faithfully 
the only safe path to heaven, — a true Christian 
life ; and, not satisfied with precept only, had 
endeavored by the daily beauty of his own exem- 
plary conduct and character to aid them in the 
attainment of this great end : also, to his tender 
fidelity in the discharge of all his pastoral duties : 
and, finally, that by his constant and unabated 
zeal and deep interest, manifested at home as well 
as abroad, in the diffusion of uncorrupt Christian- 
ity, in the cause of general education and sound 
learning, and of every wise and philanthropic en- 
terprise, he had not only awakened in the hearts 
of his own people a deep and practical sympathy 
in the physical and spiritual wants of a suffering 



52 MEMOIR. 

humanity, but also, by the reflex influence of a 
prudence, wisdom, and Christian charity which 
had never failed, had done much to foster the 
stability and character of our best institutions, 
whether public or private, political, literary, or 
religious." Virtually, this was the termination 
of his regular ministry ; but, in accordance with 
the terms of his resignation, he continued to sup- 
ply the pulpit until a colleague was settled. 

After a lapse of two years, — after the hearing 
of a large number of candidates, few of whom 
seemed equal to the emergencies of the occasion, 
or the wants of the society, — the Rev. J. F. Lov- 
ering was called, and received ordination at the 
Church, on Sunday evening, June 17, 1860, in 
the customary form. To Dr. Barrett was as- 
signed the prayer of ordination. 

By the terms stipulated in the letter of resig- 
nation, " in name Mr. Lovering was to be his 
colleague ; while in reference to official duty, 
performance, and responsibleness, he was to be 
regarded as the sole minister of the society." 
From this time, therefore, Dr. Barrett ceased to 
be its preacher and pastor, only to become a pro- 
prietor and parishioner ; never ceasing, as he had 
opportunity, " to mingle with them at their daily 
homes, in their private and public walks, and 
to favor them, as in past time, with his salutary 
counsels." 

In a short time after, Dr. Barrett removed to 



MEMOIE. 53 

Roxbury. He took up his residence on the High- 
lands, in the immediate neighborhood of some of 
his ministerial friends, and of his old and well- 
tried parishioners. As his pulpit services were 
in constant demand, he continued to preach up to 
the time of his last sickness. He was at the 
Church of the Redeemer in Boston, so late as 
Jan. 21, when his subject was, " Jesus Christ, 
Heroic as well as Gentle." Rev. Mr. Bradlee 
writes, " It was a grand discourse, and gave great 
satisfaction." He visited the city from day to 
day, in the discharge of the many official and 
responsible duties which he had not relinquished. 
Daily he might be seen at the rooms of the Amer- 
ican Unitarian Association, encouraging, by his 
presence and words, the new measures for the 
extension of a faith he loved so well, and for 
which he had done so much. Among other la- 
bors at this time, none were more interesting to 
him, or more characteristic, than his efforts to 
revive decayed, and to aid feeble, Unitarian so- 
cieties, in which he met with gratifying success. 

In the performance of these and other like 
duties, in the serene light of domestic affection 
and fireside joys, and the respectful veneration 
of all who knew him, at peace with himself and 
the world, with hopes full of immortality, glided 
quietly and usefully away the last days of this 
good man and Christian minister. 

Through a long life, he had enjoyed an unsur- 



54 MEMOIR. 

passed degree of uniform good health. As it 
was almost his first, his final sickness came upon 
him quite unexpectedly ; but it did not find him 
unprepared. The spirit and principle of forti- 
tude had been among the cherished studies of 
his life ; and they did not fail or desert him when 
the season of trial came. His sufferings were 
continuous and severe for some weeks, but were 
borne with a cheerfulness of heart, a peace of 
mind, a spirit of patience and resignation, which 
flowed spontaneously from those elevated and 
divine principles which he had urged upon others 
in all his preaching, and by which he had en- 
deavored to regulate his own life. His physician 
said " he had never witnessed, in similar circum- 
stances, a balance more complete. " Dr. Bartol 
says, " His malady was of a very painful nature ; 
but he bore it with a hero's and martyr's mind, 
calm and clear." 

Probably he was not fully apprised of the fatal 
character of his illness till the day preceding his 
departure. In the night previous, a vision of 
heaven, bright and beautiful, had seemingly been 
opened to him, which, in the morning, he de- 
scribed as far as he was able. He regarded it as 
nothing other than a dream. But did it not in- 
dicate a state of mind, pure, elevated, and serene, 
dwelling already in a region of blessedness, and 
catching a foregleam of the heavenly and the 
spiritual ? 



MEMOIR. 55 

Early in the same day, a favorite hymn, at his 
request, was read to him : — 

" Come, thou Almighty King." 

When this wish had been gratified, he intimated 
by a few broken words — they were all he could 
utter — his desire to have read to him, from 
the same Bible which had been his constant com- 
panion in sickness as in health, the Sermon on 
the Mount. It was his last wish, but one full 
of the deepest meaning ; for that chapter em- 
bodied the platform of faith on which he had 
stood firmly and confidently through life, and on 
which, as confidently and firmly, he stood in the 
hour of death. " The floods came, and the winds 
blew, and beat upon that house ; but it fell not, 
for it was founded on a rock." 

On the day following, — Sunday, June 24, 1866, 
— without a murmur or a sigh, this good man 
and much honored and beloved minister " fell 
asleep in Jesus." 

In a sermon preached by him on the death of 
one of his aged and honored parishioners, he 
seems to have foreshadowed, in the following 
beautiful words, the time and manner of his own 
departure out of life : — 

" Ah ! brethren, the world is too much in our 
hearts, if we can never perceive the beautiful in 
death ; and we do all, I suppose, sometimes speak 
of the beautiful in death, — the quiet, tranquil, 



5Q MEMOIR. 

passing-away of the spirit in Christian trust and 
hope. Yes, we do sometimes speak of calm, 
beautiful deaths, whether in infancy or middle 
life, because we, for a moment, see with the eye 
of faith. But no death is so beautiful as that 
which often occurs in the fulness of age. When it 
comes at the close of an upright, pure, and use- 
ful life, passed in contentment and cheerfulness, 
and not without enjoyment to the last; when the 
course of nature has been run ; when the spirit, 
having trusted in Providence through long years, 
still trusts on, and sees no terrors in. death any 
more than in sleep, and fears no more to lie down 
to the one than to the other ; when the spirit so 
goes, life sinking like an expiring taper, or like 
weary, worn-out minds, — we see a fitness, nay, 
a sort of natural beauty, in the event." 

" So fades a summer cloud away, 

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er, 
So gently shuts the eye of day, 
So dies a wave along the shore. 

Life's duty done, as sinks the clay, 

Light from the load the spirit flies ; 
While heaven and earth combine to say, 

' How hlest the righteous when he dies ! ' " 

The funeral was attended on the following 
Tuesday, at the church of Dr. Putnam, Roxbury. 
A large assemblage were present to testify their 
respect for the memory of the departed. As he 
lay in his coffin, the features of the deceased 



MEMOIR. 57 

were placid and sweet almost beyond expression. 
They were saint-like. The peace of heaven 
seemed to have settled down on them. Drs. Lo- 
throp, Bartol, and Gannett conducted the ser- 
vices of the occasion, — hymns, address, and 
prayer, — evincing a just and tender apprecia- 
tion of the labors, life, and character of their 
departed brother, and the loss sustained by the 
community. The music of the choir and organ 
harmonized and deepened the feelings of the 
whole audience, and the scene was one long to be 
remembered. He was borne to his last resting- 
place at Mount Auburn, followed by a long train 
of sympathizing friends, among whom none were 
deeper or more sincere mourners than the former 
members of the Twelfth Congregational Society, 
of which he was sole minister for thirty-five 
years ; one of the longest pastorates on record in 
the city of Boston, out of more than two hundred 
ministers settled there during the present century. 
Since that time, the members of his former 
flock have subscribed, almost spontaneously, a 
sum of money fully adequate for the purchase of 
an appropriate and handsome monument to be 
erected over his grave the coming season, with 
appropriate ornamentation and inscriptions, as a 
testimonial of their unabated gratitude for his 
consecrated labors of many years, and of con- 
tinued affection and respect for his character and 
memory. 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 



It was natural, as it was just, that one who, through 
his whole life, had been so tender of the feelings and 
reputations of others, — never failing to rebuke the 
censorious, whether of the living or the dead, — and 
whose joy and custom it was to commend at all proper 
times, and with all fitting words, the deserving and 
the good, should, at his decease, have many to rise 
up spontaneously, to do him honor with their pens, 
and to drop the tear and the myrtle wreath upon his 
grave. 

On the announcement, therefore, of his decease, 
obituary notices appeared in most of the papers and 
periodicals, not only in the city, but elsewhere ; some 
of them elaborate, all of them highly and justly 
appreciative. To give more of fulness and complete- 
ness to this otherwise imperfect Memoir, we subjoin 
here brief abstracts of some of these sketches, and, 
with these, extracts from a few letters in our posses- 
sion, through which we shall obtain additional esti- 
mates, and some new and interesting traits, of Dr. 
Barrett's character. 



60 APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 

From the notice in the " Christian Register," at- 
tributed to the Rev. G. E. Ellis, D.D., so discrimi- 
nating and so just, we give this short abstract : — 

" He was one of the narrowing circle of the wise and 
good, the constant and experienced, the friendly and judi- 
cious, of our elder brethren, on whom we feel we are depend- 
ing with an affectionate confidence, amid changes which 
take away more than they supply of enthusiasm and cour- 
age of heart. So admirably poised in him was the balance 
between a love of the old, and a hospitality towards the 
new, elements of the working religious forces of the age, 
that there is hardly another of the elders among us who 
may more fairly represent the creed and spirit of our fellow- 
ship. . . . We know not, indeed, that in his personal convic- 
tions, or in the sum or substance of his Christian opinions, 
he had yielded to any essential modification of the views 
with which he entered upon his ministry. But he doubtless 
had learned to adjust his early creed to the expanding in- 
fluences of modern criticism and speculation. ... As pastor, 
he was most assiduous and single-hearted ; he wrought 
faithfully in routine and systematic methods, and was ready 
to vary, according to new conditions, the stereotyped course 
of the ministry. He kept abreast of the times, and, though 
he loved quiet, did not shun the peaceful agitation of novel- 
ties. His own sterling qualities of character — right-heart- 
edness, sound judgment, and gentle kindness of spirit — 
secured him willing helpers. . . . His advice was sought 
by those who intended to follow it if they could get it. 
He had no petty jealousies, no pestering suspicions, no 
side self-seekings. . . . He united the dignities of a philo- 
sophic calm with the graces of a Christian humility and 
serenity. . . . 

"As a preacher, Dr. Barrett was regarded by his own 
people as having but few, if any, superiors in the effective- 
ness of his pulpit ministrations. ... He felt deeply the truth 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 61 

and the importance of the views he presented; and he chose 
his themes with a reference to the seriousness and the prac- 
tical power which they ought to have for intelligent and 
well-disposed persons. . . . He spoke from a full mind, as he 
continued to be a diligent reader. Good sense, moderation, 
substantial matter, and the simple desire for edification, 
characterized his compositions. He was also a sagacious 
observer of men ; and his eyes and mind were always open 
to the teachings of the living world. 

" Among his brethren, Dr. Barrett held a high place of 
respect and confidence. His modesty and unobtrusiveness 
of spirit made him rather a listener than a frequent speaker 
in their meetings. . . . He was a kindly critic. 

"Nor did Dr. Barrett confine his interest in the cause of 
Christian truth to his well-served work in his own parish. 
He was one of the early members of the American Unitarian 
Association. To his wisdom and discreet judgment that 
Association was indebted from its very beginning, and it 
retained his interest in the new promise of its activity and 
accomplishments. When he entered upon his ministry, the 
need of controversy, and the championship of contested 
Christian liberty, required of him and his brethren a kind 
of zeal which is not so much needed — not to say so well 
appreciated — in these days. . . . He dealt some hard blows, 
but followed them with his mild and kind wishes, with the 
hope that they would injure only the errors, and not those 
who hold them ; for he was not a man of stern or severe 
spirit. 

" Now, we trust, he is among the forgiven and the glori- 
fied. Pleasantly and lovingly shall we cherish the image 
and memory which he has left us." 

From a sermon preached by Dr. Bartol from his 
own pulpit, West Church, Boston, a few Sundays 
after the interment, and subsequently published in the 
" Monthly Religious Magazine," we select the follow- 



62 APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 

ing sentences, embracing a brief summary of his 
views of Dr. Barrett's life and character : — 

" Dr. Barrett was a good man. There was nothing about 
him cold, indifferent, or tame, rather an extraordinary fer- 
vor. But his heart had no foul or malign element. His fire 
showed the purity of a smokeless flame. It was fed with 
no selfish or sensual fire, but sacred essences of humanity 
and truth. Let me bear him witness ! Throughout these 
thirty years of our mutual acquaintance, I never met him but 
to see this divine ardor in his face, hear it in his voice, and 
mark it in his manner ; and to breathe in his whole atmos- 
phere that indescribable blending of beautiful traits, the 
secret of whose unity could no more be detected than 
the way the seven colors melt into the spotless white. So 
gentle his look, so cordial his greeting, it was sufficient to 
imagine that an almost volcanic passion was native to his 
soul. But never was victory more perfect than in the charity 
to which his temper was schooled and subdued. 

" The combination, too, in character, so rare and hard, of 
the kind with the sincere, in him was complete. . . . His 
veracity seemed a law. He did not know how to tell a lie. 
I do not think he could have done it. Yet there was no 
attribute in him his friends would perhaps sooner single out 
than his wisdom, though it was wisdom without suspicion of 
management or cunning. . . . He was simple as he was wise. 
With shrewdness, I should say, he united self-forgetfulness, 
but that there appeared no self to forget. Self-denial was 
self-indulgence. His entire self-government set him against 
all violent procedure, even in reform. Yet, though late in 
the field, he was loyal to the core ; for when the enemies of 
freedom showed their hand, and began to play with guns 
their terrible game, none resisted with more resolution. 

" Bright and cheering views his own mind moved him to 
take. To him, in his goodness, all was good. The world 
was a good world; the race was a ^ood race; all fortune 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 63 

was good fortune ; and Providenee was infinitely good. In 
the darkest times, he never despaired. ... I suppose there 
never was profounder faith in the future of mankind, and 
the immortal destiny and bliss of the children of men. . . . 

" Never was pity more tender or reflective or circum- 
spect. I should leave out one of his principal traits, if I 
omitted this uniform, unsurpassed forbearance to rub un- 
necessarily the sore spot. . . . i\ T ot that he was reticent or 
close. He was transparent and altogether decided in his 
opinion. But he differed entirely from those who are dili- 
gent to thrust in the probe where they have not been called 
as surgeons, and chafing into morbid activity old and half- 
healed wounds. The young are good judges ; and he singu- 
larly drew them, as a teacher, in early life. . . . 

" He was a good man. Perhaps no clergyman has been 
more beloved by his parishioners and professional associates. 
Many a heart was in the coffin holding the precious remains 
that had been his body, — the shrine of a nature as noble 
and affectionate as is ever dressed in human form, still keep- 
ing in decay his innocent and generous look." 

One of his classmates, while at the Divinity School, 
has favored us with this brief estimate of Dr. Barrett's 
character : — 

" He was a diligent student, and ranked high as a scholar. 
His research was thorough, his judgment discriminating 
and independent, and his conclusions held and defended 
without narrowness or bigotry. Possessing more than or- 
dinary abilities, had he been ambitious of distinction and 
less diffident of himself, he would doubtless have taken rank 
among the foremost in his profession. His probity, sincer- 
ity, goodness of heart, and constancy in friendship, won for 
him the respect, confidence, and love of all who knew him. 
To me, his memory is endeared by many a fond remem- 
brance." 



64 APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 

From the Records of the Society for the Relief of 
Destitute Clergymen : — 

" Boston, Nov. 5, 1866. 

" Attention having been called to the vacancy in the Ex- 
ecutive Committee occasioned by the death of the Rev. Dr. 
Barrett, the following resolution was proposed by President 
Walker, and passed unanimously : — 

" Resolved, That we cannot refrain from recording our sense 
of the loss this Society has sustained in the death of one of its 
earliest and best friends, our profound respect for our late asso- 
ciate, and our personal regret that we are no longer to have the 
benefit of his council and co-operation in the work before us." 

Rev. Dr. Miles, Secretary of the Society for pro- 
moting Theological Education at Cambridge, writes 
of Dr. Barrett thus : " I need not say to you, who 
knew his faithfulness so well, that there was hardly 
any member more constant in his attendance on its 
meetings, or more watchful of its interests ; " and 
then takes occasion to add: ' 6 Equally needless must 
it be for me to assure you of the respectful deference 
with which his opinions were always received and 
often asked ; uttered, as they were, positively but 
modestly, kindly, and often playfully, and with an 
unfailing good sense and judgment. There was the 
interest of decision in all that he said. No one was 
left in doubt where he stood. The conclusions, so 
squarely defined, were seen to be the fruit of sagacious 
thought, and always had a broad and generous basis. 
If others had more book-learning, there have been few 
among the clergy who had a more practical knowl- 
edge of mankind. I do not think he has left one who 
surpassed him in the warmth of personal affection with 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 65 

which he was universally regarded." This he writes 
after an " affectionate intimacy of nearly forty years." 

Rev. Charles Brooks writes me, "I once made a 
study of his character ; and I could not find any more 
fault with it than I could with the law of gravita- 
tion." 

The following testimonial is from another of his 
professional brethren, one who knew him long and 
well, writing to another venerable brother, who per- 
haps knew him still better : — 

" You and I have parted for a while — a little while — 
with a very dear and pleasant friend ; one whose cordiality, 
kindness, and faithfulness rendered his friendship of ines- 
timable worth to us ; one with whose name and memory 
will be mingled sacred and delightful associations. Very 
pleasant was his social intercourse ; very grateful his cordial 
and kindly greetings; impressive his many wise, and ex- 
hilarating his mirthful and witty, sayings. We shall never 
forget what he was to us in our frequent meetings. But 
especially shall we cherish . and venerate his memory and 
name as that of a good man, — a faithful, devoted, beloved, 
and most successful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, — 
eminently deserving the tender and affectionate remem- 
brance which drew forth so many tears at his funeral. Let 
us often think, — 

' We die not all; for myriad beings, 
That live and think and do, 
Have felt our life, in its secret springs, 
And will feel it their being through. 

We die not all: we shall live on earth, 
In the words and deeds of the past; 

And death to the soul is a glorious birth, 
Where no seeds of decay are cast.' " 
5 



GG appendix to memoir. 



II. 



A COMPLETE LIST OF DR. BARRETT'S PUB- 
LISHED WRITINGS. 

1825. Review of Rev. E. Q. SewalPs Sermon on Human De- 
pravity. Ch. Ex., vol. ii. pp. 285-90. 

1825. One Hundred Scriptural Arguments for the Unitarian 

Faith. Tract No. 2, A. U. A. 

1826. Review of Noyes's Amended Version of the Book of 

Job. Ch. Ex., vol. iv. 

1828. The Apostle Peter a Unitarian. Tract No. 55, A. U. A, 

1829. Excuses for the Neglect of the Communion considered 

Tract No. 22, A. U. A. 
1829. Sermon, Ordination of Rev. M. G. Thomas, Concord 

N .H. Boston: L. C. Bowles. 
1829. A Tract, No. 28, A. U. A. ; title, " The Doctrine of Reli 

gious Experience." 
1831. Sermon, " Our Obligations and Privileges as Christians/ 

Vol. i. No. 4, Liberal Preacher. 

1831. Discourse before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 

Company. Published at Cambridge : Metcalf & Co. 

1832. Sermon at Twelfth Congregational Society, Fast Day : 

Cholera. Hillard, Gray, & Co. 

1833. Sermon, " The Kingdom of God Within." Lib. P., vol. 

hi. No. 5, New Series. 

1834. Sermon, Installation of Rev. G. R. Noyes at Petersham. 

Chas. Bo wen. 

1834. Tract No. 90, "Apologies for Indifference to Religion, 

&c, examined." A. U. A. 

1835. Address, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts : " Character of 

St. John the Evangelist." 

1838. Sermon, Twelfth Congregational Society, on Duelling. 

Boston : I. R. Butts, pp. 18. 

1839. Speech at the Centennial Celebration, Wilton. Boston : 

B. H. Greene. 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 67 

1843. Sermon, "What Thinkest Thou? or, Ten Questions 
Answered." Tract No. 190, A. U. A. 

1845. Eeview of "Life and Discourses of Eev. G. W. Wells." 
Ch. Ex., 4th series, March No. 

1845. Eefiections in a Sunday School. Tuttle & Dennett. 

1847. " Eelation of Liberal Christians to our Age and Coun- 
try." Address before Min. Con. Ch. Ex., vol. viii. 4th 
series, Sept. No. 

1847. Eeview of the Life, Character, and Select Works of 

Elder Simon Clough. Ch. Ex., vol. vii. 

1848. A Tract, No. 246, A. U. A. : " What becomes me, &c. ? " 
1850. Two Discourses on the Completion of the Twenty-fifth 

Year of his Ministry, pp. 40. Boston : Tuttle & 
Dennett. 
1857. " Youths Void of Understanding." Discourse, Twelfth 
Congregational Society, March, 1857. Boston : Crosby 
& Nichols. 



OFFICES HELD BY DR. BARRETT. 

18 — to 18 — . Secretary of the Berry-street Conference of Min- 
isters. 

1825 to 1841. Executive Committee of the American Unitarian 
Association. 

1862 to 1866. Same. 

1834 to 1858. Member of the Executive Committee Massachu- 
setts Evangelical Missionary Society. 

1858 to 1866. Vice-President of the same. 

1842 to 1866. Member of the Select Committee of the Society 

for Propagating the Gospel, &c. 

1848 to 1866. Member of Executive Committee Society for Be- 
lief of Destitute Clergymen. 

1828 to 1843. Trustee of Society for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge, Piety, and Charity. 

1843 to 1854. Vice-President of the same. 
1854 to 1866. President of the same. 

1852 to 1858. President of the Fraternity of Churches. 



68 APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. 

1853 to 1866. Member for Promoting Theological Education at 
Cambridge. 

18— to 1846. Trustee of the Hopkins Eund. 

1835 to 1852. Overseer of Harvard College ; and for Eifteen 
Years Chairman of the Committee for the 
Examination of Students in Natural Philoso- 
phy or Physics. 

1861 to 1866. Trustee of the Winthrop Ward Fund in aid of 
Eeeble Unitarian Societies. 

All his colleagues agree in acknowledging " the punctuality 
of his attendance, his deep interest in the objects of the socie- 
ties with which he was connected, and the wisdom of his coun- 
sels and suggestions." 



DISCOURSES. 



The, following Discourses of the Rev. Dr. Barrett have 
heen selected for publication out of the many left behind him, 
because they are so full of wise, useful, and always timely 
advice ; because they will convey to the reader, as we think, a 
just and true idea of his general manner and style of discourse 
in the pulpit ; and because they must awaken in the minds of 
those who sat under his long ministry, into whose hands we 
hope many of them will fall, associations of the tenderest char- 
acter, and new and yet stronger feelings of gratitude and 
reverence. 



DISCOURSES. 



CHRIST, — HIS NATURE, MISSION, AND CHAR- 
ACTER. 

1 Cor. xi. 3: "I would have you know that the head of 

EVERY MAN IS CHRIST, AND THE HEAD OF CHRIST IS GOD." 

The subject to which I am to ask your attention 
this morning is the character of Jesus Christ, — 
not his moral character, hut his official charac- 
ter; a subject involving the long-agitated ques- 
tions as to his divinity, and the rank he sustains 
relatively to the great Father of all. 

I am aware, as already intimated, that the 
opinions of nearly all of those who hear me were 
long ago made up on this topic, and do not, there- 
fore, need for themselves any further discussion 
of it ; but I know also that there are some who 
are still engaged in the process of investigation, 
and to whom statements and explanations of our 
views would be acceptable. 



72 



My purpose, then, is to take occasion from the 
apostle's declaration, " The head of every man is 
Christ, and the head of Christ is God," to give 
such an exposition of what liberal Christians 
generally believe respecting the divinity of the 
Saviour, as the limits of a single discourse will 
allow; and to do it with all the explicitness of 
which I am capable. 

I begin with requesting such as are not much 
accustomed to reading our books on this subject, 
to fix it in their minds, in the outset, that we 
make a distinction between Christ's divinity 
and Christ's deity. We do not believe in his 
deity; i.e., we cannot admit that he was Cod. 
But we do believe in his divinity. Let me ex- 
plain. 

The expression, "the deity of Christ" relates to 
his person, and means that he is God by nature. 
The phrase, " the divinity of Christ," may indeed 
have the same signification ; but it may also have 
a very different one. It may have no relation 
to his abstract nature and person, but simply to 
something which he has received from God. 
Consequently, divinity may be ascribed to him, 
though, in his nature and person, he is a being 
distinct from, and inferior to, and dependent 
upon, the eternal and almighty Father. 

In a sense like this, we do ascribe divinity to 
our Saviour. We would by no means represent 
him as merely a common man, destitute of every 



MISSION, AND CHARACTER. 73 

thing superhuman and divine. On the contrary, 
we believe in, and on all proper occasions would 
assert, his divinity, according to the just import 
of the text, and of the Scriptures generally. We 
have no sympathy with those, if any there be, 
who delight to degrade the Author and Finisher 
of our faith below his true rank. No : it is 
rather our wish and aim to exalt, in our concep- 
tion, the Son of God, so far as is consistent with 
the peerless majesty, the absolute supremacy, 
and the incommunicable glory of the infinite and 
everlasting Creator, as revealed in the Bible. 
So far from wishing to take the smallest gem 
from the crown of our Master, Christ, to shade 
a single ray of his brightness, or in the least 
degree to diminish his authority, we long and 
pray for the happy time when " in the name of 
Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue 
confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father." To help forward this blessed period, 
we are anxious that scriptural views of his divin- 
ity may be universally diffused and embraced. 
What, then, is our belief on this all-important 
subject ? 

1. First, We believe in the divinity of our Sav- 
iour's mission. He uniformly declared that he 
was sent of God ; and he proved the truth of his 
declaration by doing what no one could have done, 
had not God been with him. His language is, " I 
am come in my Father's name." — " Neither came 



74 CHRIST, — HIS NATURE, 

I of myself, but he sent me." This was an ex- 
plicit avowal of a divine mission, and divine we 
hold it to have really been ; but the very idea 
of his mission implies that he had a Superior 
who could give him the mission. 

2. Secondly, We believe in the divinity of his 
office. His office as the Messiah is peculiar. He 
had no predecessor, and will have no successor, 
in it. It was constituted by God alone. This 
office, and every thing relating to it, is inde- 
pendent of men, and above all earthly authority. 
It was established and conferred by the special 
will of Heaven. Consequently, it is divine ; but, 
obviously, he who was in a condition to receive 
an office could not be the infinite God. 

3. Thirdly, We believe in the divinity of his 
poivers. " God," saith Scripture, " anointed Jesus 
of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power." 
— "He giveth not the Spirit by measure unto 
him." — " He hath given him authority, and hath 
made him Lord of all." Without power derived 
from God in a supernatural way, he could not 
have been qualified for his divine office, nor fitted 
to fulfil his divine mission. But one possessed 
only of derived power could not have been him- 
self the Supreme Being. 

4. Fourthly, We believe in the divinity of his 
doctrine. What he taught originated with and 
came from God. He said, " My doctrine is not 
mine, but His that sent me." — "I have not 



75 



spoken of myself; but the Father, who sent me, 
he gave me commandment what I should say and 
what I should speak." And the apostles declared 
the same : " God," said they, " hath in these last 
days spoken unto us by his Son." Thus, the 
gospel, as communicated by Jesus Christ, is di- 
vine, — divine, not because he himself was Deity, 
but because the doctrine he taught he received 
from God. 

5. Fifthly, We believe in the divinity of his 
works. Jesus performed miracles, which no un- 
aided man could perform. They were proofs, 
because effects of supernatural power. He said, 
" The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the 
works." — " Believe me, that I am in the Father, 
and the Father in me ; or else believe me for the 
very works' sake." That is, believe me on ac- 
count of the miracles which it is impossible I 
should perform without power from on high. 
Thus, his works were divine, because he was 
enabled by God to do them ; and not because he 
possessed, in himself, infinite power. His power, 
as he a hundred times asserted, was obtained 
from his Father and our Father. 

6. Sixthly, We believe in the divinity of that 
fulness which the Scriptures ascribe to him, — 
fulness of spiritual gifts and blessings, flowing 
from God through him to the race. He himself 
was not the source of them ; but, as we are told 
in sacred writ, " it pleased the Father, that in him 



76 



should all fulness dwell." The inestimable bene- 
fits of the gospel which come to us by Jesus 
Christ could have had their ultimate source in 
no created being. They are to be traced through 
the Son of God to God himself, and are the riches 
of Ms infinite grace. The fulness of the Saviour 
was divine, not as self-produced, but as sup- 
plied by the great and good Being who is above 
all. 

Such, my friends, is the true doctrine of our 
Saviour's divinity, — the divinity of his mission, 
the divinity of his office, the divinity of his pav- 
ers, the divinity of his doctrines, the divinity of 
his works, the divinity of the fulness that dwelt 
in him ; all, however, in subordination to the 
absolute supremacy of God the Father. 

It is a blessed doctrine. We would cling to it, 
though all the rest of the world should reject 
it. It is what makes Christianity valuable to us. 
We are not the disciples of a mere common man. 
We rely on one who exhibited in all he said and 
did the marks of divinity. His words and deeds 
are to us the same, in effect, as the words and 
deeds of God. What more do we want ? What 
need have we that he should be in his nature and 
person the eternal, underivcd, self-existent One, 
to whom we pay our highest religious homage ? 

What do we lose by supposing that he held 
his divinity in dependence on the Father of all ? 
Is not the light of the sun, that God causes to 



77 



shine upon us from the sky, just as valuable as it 
would be if that sun were God himself? Is not 
the fire that God causes to warm us just as valua- 
ble as it would be were that fire God himself ? Is 
not the air which God causes to maintain our life 
just as valuable as it would be were that air God 
himself? This no one can deny. Upon the 
same principle, I ask, are not Jesus Christ and 
the gospel just as valuable to us as they would 
be, were either the one or the other, or both, lit- 
erally and strictly, the infinite and eternal God ? 
What do we lose, by regarding our Saviour, in 
his nature and person, as subordinate to the Deity, 
as the commissioned agent of God's truth and 
love, while we know that all he said and did 
are truly divine ? We lose nothing ; while we 
save ourselves from numberless perplexities, in 
which otherwise we should be involved, often 
as we listened to reason, or read the Scriptures. 

1. We lose nothing as to our Saviour's mis- 
sion. Indeed, it would be a solecism to speak of 
his mission at all, on the ground that he himself 
was the Supreme Being. God could not be sent 
by any one. But Christ was sent ; which implies 
his subordinate rank. Are we deprived of any 
advantages by this view ? Not in the least. Did 
not he faithfully execute the designs of the 
Father ? Then he is all to us, so far as the gos- 
pel is concerned, that the Father himself could 
have been, had he appeared in his own person. 



78 



2. We lose nothing as to his office. Here, 
again, you perceive the absurdity of the idea 
that God could be appointed to an office. But 
Christ, as the whole New Testament teaches, 
was so appointed. Do we suffer loss in conse- 
quence? By no means. A sovereign's benefac- 
tion to his subjects is the same to them, whether 
conferred by his own hand or by the hand of a 
subordinate officer. If Jesus performed all the 
Father's gracious will respecting us, which none 
deny, then nothing more could have been done, 
had the Father himself stood visibly on this 
earth, proclaiming the truths of the gospel, and 
dying in attestation of them, instead of doing 
as he chose to do, when he committed these 
offices to his beloved Son. 

3. We lose nothing as to his powers. These 
are not the less divine, and of course not the less 
effective for our salvation, because conferred on 
Christ, instead of being inherently and naturally 
his. Power is power as much when derived from 
another as when self-originated. Christ was able 
to perform miracles, as the Scriptures tell us, 
because God was with him. Would his miracles 
have availed any the more, either for his imme- 
diate disciples or for us, had he himself been 
God, and so needed not the aid of a superior 
Being ? Not at all. His powers being, on both 
suppositions, adequate to the ends for which they 
were exerted, we derogate from them not the 



79 



least by affirming that lie received them from 
the Father. 

4. We lose nothing as to his doctrine. Com- 
ing from God originally, it is of course divine, by 
whatever messenger it is borne to us. The deity 
of Christ's person could not have added any 
thing to the divinity of his truth. Pure water 
is pure water, whether we drink it from the 
spring or from a cup. So, when one brings us 
glad tidings from the Father of our spirits, it is 
not so much the nature and rank of the bearer 
we are concerned with, as it is the message he 
communicates. Persuade me that the gospel is 
really a revelation from God, and I value it none 
the less because it has come through a mediator, 
instead of having been spoken to man directly 
from the lips of the Infinite and Eternal One. 

5. We lose nothing as to his works. What 
God does by an agent is the same to us as what 
he does in his own person. The supernatural 
works of Jesus have every mark of divinity 
stamped on them that they would have had if 
they had been the efforts of the Father Almighty's 
power acting without any medium of exertion. 

6. We lose nothing as to his fulness, and the 
blessings communicated by him. This fulness 
is obviously the same, whether derived or unde- 
rived. And the blessings brought to us by Christ 
are as obviously the same, both in nature and 
value, whether he be a created or uncreated be- 



80 CHRIST, — HIS NATURE, 

ing. If he is qualified to bring us the means 
of salvation, these are what chiefly concern us, 
and not the question, when and where did he 
begin to exist, or to what order of beings does 
he belong ? 

If, then, we find in Christ, God's agent, 
messenger, and son, every thing we spiritually 
need, every thing to make us holy and happy, 
every thing to fill us with the hope of immor- 
tal life, what more, I ask again, do we want? 
Why shall any have misgivings and feel dissatis- 
fied, because they cannot believe that Jesus is 
himself the Supreme Being ? If Christ be quali- 
fied for the great duties laid upon him, is it not 
enough ? The personal attributes of Deity can- 
not be necessary to enable him to perform what 
God has given him to do, — seeing that the 
Father is with him and in him. If he be faith- 
ful to his trusts, and if he be endued from on 
high with every fitness to execute the Father's 
will, what more do we want ? 

Do we want any thing more to give to the gos- 
pel a divine character ? Not at all. To consti- 
tute the gospel a divine revelation, it was only 
needful that he who communicated it should 
have received it from God, should have been 
commissioned by God to make it known, and 
should have been empowered by God to give 
sufficient proof of his divine authority. 

Do we want any thing more to assure us of 



81 



his being a complete Saviour? Not at all. Is 
not God himself, according to every view of the 
subject, the original source of whatever apper- 
tains to human salvation ? And shall it be said, 
that his beloved Son, whom he hath sanctified 
and sent into the world, and on whom he hath 
poured his Spirit without measure, is still not 
competent to the work assigned him, not ade- 
quate to the office of Saviour, unless he possess, 
inherently and naturally, all the perfections of 
the eternal and omnipotent God ? 

Do we want any thing more to effect the atone- 
ment ? Not at all. I know that a different feel- 
ing exists on this point. It is supposed by some, 
that, as an infinite Being has been sinned against, 
the death of an infinite Being was requisite to 
atone for the sin. But do you not see what this 
notion leads to ? The death of an infinite Being, 
it is said, is necessary ; i.e., the death of God 
himself; for he alone is infinite. At the thought 
of this, who does not shudder ? But, say some 
Trinitarians, we do not mean that the divine part 
of Christ died : it was only his human part. And 
is it so ? Then, I ask, where is the infinite atone- 
ment you spoke of? If Christ suffered only in 
his human nature, infinity is not involved at all 
in the event of his death. The case being thus, 
then, whatever the atonement may be supposed 
to consist in, one inferior to the Deity was com- 
petent to effect it. One inferior to the Deity did 
6 



82 CHRIST, — HIS NATURE, 

effect it. For what says the apostle ? " We joy 
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
we have received the atonement." By whom, — 
I wish you to mark the expression, — by whom: 
this implies instrumentality. It shows that Christ 
was simply the means by which the atonement 
was accomplished. And who was the cause, — 
who the original mover ? Evidently, God. " We 
joy in God" says the apostle. What does this 
prove, but that he regarded God as above Jesus, 
superior to Jesus, and the latter only as the 
medium of God's operations ? And what is the 
atonement? Any satisfaction made to the Su- 
preme Being ? Evidently not ; for he himself is 
represented as the originator of it. It was the 
result of his own unchangeable love, insomuch 
that it was proper for the apostle to joy in God. 
What, then, was it ? The word " atonement," you 
will notice, occurs in no other part of the New 
Testament ; the original Greek word being, in all 
other cases, translated reconciliation. And this 
is the proper English word: it ought to have 
been used, instead of " atonement," in the expres- 
sion just quoted from St. Paul. Yes, reconcil- 
iation is the great doctrine of the gospel. To 
produce reconciliation between God and man was 
the design of Christ's mission. But, in effecting 
this reconciliation, which of the parties was to 
be changed ? Not God, but man. For what says 
the apostle ? " We joy in God, through Jesus 



MISSION, AND CHARACTER. 



83 



Christ, by whom we have received the atone- 
ment," or, rather, the reconciliation. We have 
received it. Tims man, not God, is the party 
affected. Jesus is the instrument by which the 
work is accomplished, and God is the gracious 
source of the blessing. Is not this view per- 
fectly scriptural, perfectly reasonable too, and 
perfectly satisfactory ? Do you not perceive that 
the doctrine of the atonement, or reconciliation, 
does not demand that we suppose Christ to have 
been the Supreme Being ? Nay, is it not utterly 
incompatible with such a supposition ? Is not 
that sort of divinity which I have ascribed to 
our Saviour — the divinity of his mission, office, 
doctrine, works, and the like — all that is neces- 
sarily, nay, all that can possibly be, connected 
with the subject of atonement or reconciliation ? 

Do we want any thing more in any respect ? 
Not at all. From the induction of particulars 
to which I have called your attention, you per- 
ceive that the supposed deity of Christ is not 
only without use to Christians, but can rightfully 
have no connection with it. All we want, and 
all the gospel record allows, is that kind of di- 
vinity which I have described as belonging to 
our Saviour. 

My friends, I have treated the subject in this 
plain, unadorned, and explicit manner, in order 
that I might be easily understood by every one ; 
and that our opinions on this important topic, so 



84 



often discussed among Christians, might not be 
misapprehended by any. All have, I doubt not, 
a clear view of the distinction we make between 
our Saviour's divinity and his deity. He is 
divine, but he is not God. He is the head of 
man, but God is the head of Christ. 

We shall find satisfaction, I think, in the doc- 
trine I have inculcated, when we approach the 
communion-table. What would be our emotions, 
did we come to this ordinance with the belief 
that we were about to commemorate the death of 
God ? My brothers and sisters, it is with painful 
feelings that I put such a question ; yet it is sat- 
isfactory to contemplate the subject occasionally 
in this light. There are some errors which, to 
be shunned, need but to be seen in their results. 
And there are truths which are not duly esti- 
mated till they are perceived in contrast with 
the errors to which they are opposed. Let us be 
grateful to God that we are free from the appall- 
ing views to which I have alluded, and which 
are still so extensively held. Let us rejoice that 
we can perform the interesting service of remem- 
brance appointed by our honored Master, with- 
out any perplexing and distressing ideas. We 
can, indeed, find every thing in it to touch the 
soul, and awaken thoughtfulness and love ; but 
nothing to terrify, nothing to palsy the faculties. 
It is not the sufferings and death of Deity that 
we are called on to commemorate; yet there is 



85 



enough in the thought of our Saviour, as pre- 
sented in the Gospels, to command our rever- 
ence, our affection, and our obedience. His 
words have, with us, the authority of Heaven. 
His example is endearing and efficacious, because 
we believe that it is not too high for us humbly 
to imitate. His promises of forgiveness excite 
us to repentance, because we have faith in him 
as the delegated Messenger of the infinitely mer- 
ciful God. His death we regard as the seal 
of his ministry, as a sacrifice called for on ac- 
count of the sinful state of the world, and as a 
necessary preliminary step to that glorious resur- 
rection which demonstrated him to be the Son of 
God, and on which we hang treasures of hope. 
All this we think sufficient to induce us to honor 
his memory by obeying his last commandment. 
My friends, we have been called to be disciples of 
Jesus : I beseech you, let us be mindful of the 
privilege. My friends, we have professed to be 
disciples of Jesus : I beseech you, let us feel our 
responsibleness, — our responsibleness to Christ 
as the head of man, and to God as the head 
of Christ. 



86 



II. 



THE UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, IN BELIEF AND 
PRACTICE. 

Eph. iv. 1 : " I THEREFORE BESEECH TOU THAT YE WALK WORTHY 
OF THE VOCATION WHEREWITH YE ARE CALLED." 

It seems to me, brethren, that never before have 
they who claim to be Liberal Christians been 
in a condition to feel themselves more urgently 
called upon to be faithful to the trusts confided 
to them by Providence, than they are at the pres- 
ent day. They who profess to hold the truth of 
Jesus in freedom and love should now, I think, 
listen with unaccustomed candor and seriousness 
to suggestions regarding the great duty of walk- 
ing worthily of their vocation; i.e., of acting up 
to their principles. This is an obligation of the 
first moment always : it is especially so in times 
like these, when many deceptive lights glimmer 
on either hand to betray the unsuspecting into 
wrong courses ; when the atmosphere of religion 
is surcharged with impure and dangerous ele- 
ments ; and when the doubting and weary hesi- 
tate to adopt any of the multiplied forms of 
Christianity, till they have the opportunity of see- 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 87 

ing a more favorable exemplification of its prin- 
ciples in practice. To distinguish the superficial 
and specious from the true and substantial, is an 
exercise of discrimination to which nothing will 
so effectually help the mass of our fellow-men 
as a manifest correspondence between professed 
belief and actual conduct on the part of those 
whose intelligence and sound position give them 
influence in the community. Liberal Christians, 
so called, suppose themselves — and I doubt not 
justly — to be in possession of the simple, pure, 
and saving truths of the primitive gospel ; to 
have and to hold the faith taught and exempli- 
fied by the Son of God, free from the additions 
it received in its passage through the dark ages : 
and they are also heard to declare, often and in 
earnest tones, that they desire no other thing so 
much as the universal prevalence of those truths 
and of that faith. Now, the case being so, and 
it being at the same time clear that in no other 
way can right sentiments in religion be so effec- 
tually diffused as by a full practical exhibition of 
them in the lives of their friends and advocates, 
what — the question presents itself naturally 
and forcibly — what can be more incumbent on 
this class of Christ's followers than the duty of 
maintaining a strict consistency between what 
they believe and say, and what they are and do ; 
between the faith they profess and the conduct 
they manifest; between the manner of persons 



88 THE UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, 

they contemplate in theory, and the manner of 
persons they seek to become in character ? 

And here let me suggest, in passing, that they 
who rank themselves among Liberal Christians 
ought by no means to rest content with being 
about as good as others of a less pure and en- 
lightened faith. A great deal better, most certain- 
ly, they should be ; and they would be a great 
deal better, if they did but act up to their prin- 
ciples. Many, to a considerable degree, do so ; 
and these exhibit superior elevation, dignity, and 
beauty of character. Some, however, I am sorry 
to say, do not thus act up to their principles ; 
their conduct is unworthy of their creed ; they dis- 
honor the name they have assumed ; they bring 
discredit upon the cause they profess to expound. 
Do any here present belong to this number ? I 
hope not. But let us all look into our hearts 
and upon our lives ; let us compare what we are 
and do with what we believe and affirm ; and 
then let us answer the question, — as to whether 
we walk worthily of our vocation, — each one for 
himself, to his conscience and his God. 

My hearers, it is one of the chief glories of 
what is termed Liberal Christianity, that its 
standard of character is exceedingly elevated, 
and that all its distinctive principles have the 
effect, when carried out in practice, to advance 
its disciples in the best way of moral and reli- 
gious excellence. Unlike some systems of the- 



IN BELIEF AND PEACTICE. 89 

ology that have prevailed, it has nothing in it to 
perplex, depress, or discourage ; but every thing 
to animate, every thing to lift up and carry for- 
ward those who heartily embrace its truths, and 
strive, with the strength God gives them, to walk 
worthily of their vocation. Would any, especially 
of the younger class of my auditors, have this 
shown ? 

1. First, then, consider our views of human na- 
ture. Can any be conceived of more ennobling ? 
— any better suited to raise and perfect the char- 
acter ? In the degrading fiction of hereditary 
total depravity we have no belief: the paralyzing 
dogma of entire moral impotency we reject. In 
place of these, we adopt the encouraging, ele- 
vating truths, that man comes from his Creator's 
hand innocent and well made, and capable, with 
the assistance God continually vouchsafes, to do 
his duty ; that the Author of his being and the 
Disposer of his lot has given him, not only the 
ability, but also the means, requisite for work- 
ing out his salvation ; and that as he now uses 
both the one and the other, so will be his con- 
dition hereafter. Now, can any one fail to per- 
ceive the superior practical advantage that such 
views have over the opposite theory, which, while 
it asserts the entire corruption of man's nature, 
denies to him the power either to think a good 
thought or to perform a good deed ? 

Apply the leading principle they involve to sec- 



90 THE UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, 

ular matters, and see how it must operate there. 
Convince the agriculturist, for example, while sit- 
ting in his house on a summer's morning, that he 
is sick from head to foot, and cannot work to any 
purpose, if he should go out into his field : will he, 
in consequence, be any the more likely, do you 
think, to get up and direct his way thither ? Per- 
suade your son, before he goes to school, that he 
is a dunce, that he has no aptitude, no natural 
ability, for learning, and will he then, can you 
suppose, have much heart for study ? Just so as 
regards morals and religion : settle it in the minds 
of men, that they are, by nature, totally depraved, 
and of course altogether impotent for virtue and 
piety, and what reason can you have to expect 
that they will set about the practice of piety and 
virtue ? But how different ought the case to be 
where correct views prevail ! There men know and 
feel, that, through the goodness of Him who cre- 
ated them in his own image, they have the capa- 
city and the power for high attainments ; and the 
only thing wanting is, that they be persuaded to 
make good use of this capacity and this power. 

Is it true, then, my hearers, and do we believe 
it, that there is within us a divine, immortal prin- 
ciple ; that the inspiration of the Almighty hath 
given us understanding ; that the faculties God 
has bestowed on us are adequate to the perform- 
ance of the duties he requires of us ; and, if 
faithful to our trusts, we shall hereafter be placed 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 91 

in far wider and happier spheres of exertion? 
What, therefore, ought not to be expected of us ? 
What gratitude to the great and good Being who 
has so richly endued us? What careful heed 
to our ways, lest we ill requite him, and sub- 
ject ourselves to shame by the abuse of our 
power? What dread of every thing mean and 
low and sinful? What aspirations after excel- 
lence ? What endeavors to walk worthily of our 
high vocation ? 

2. Advert, secondly, to the manner in which 
we are accustomed to think and speak of God. 
Nothing revolts us more than the views some 
Christians have entertained of the Deity. Why, 
my hearers, you know as well as I — for you are 
not unacquainted with erroneous systems of the- 
ology — that certain attributes have been ascribed 
to the Supreme Being, which, did they belong to 
any man in your neighborhood, you would fly from 
him with horror. But I will not now describe 
them ; rather let me hasten to remind you of the 
sentiments of Liberal Christians respecting God. 
Can any be so delightful, so winning, as these? 
How do we regard this great and good Being ? 
Do we not look up to him as to our Father ? Do 
we not believe that all our thoughts and feelings 
relating to him ought to be, in the best sense of 
the term, filial ? Do we not say that we are his 
children ; that we are loved, provided for, and 
blessed by him continually ; and that we expect 



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IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 93 

and so to walk worthily of the vocation where- 
with we are called. 

3. Think, in the third place, of the light in 
which we view Jesus Christ. How clear, how 
cheerful, how quickening, it is ! How unlike the 
medium through which he has been seen by mul- 
titudes ! We regard him, not as the infinite and 
eternal God himself, but as his beloved Son, 
and therefore as one with whom we can sympa- 
thize, and whom we may attempt to imitate, with 
the hope of making some approaches towards the 
standard of his virtues ; as one who has walked 
our earth, and lived amongst men, and found, 
by experience, what are the trials and duties 
of humanity ; as one who not only taught how 
we should act, but gave us a pattern in his own 
conduct ; who, not content with pointing out the 
way we should tread, trod it himself. Yes, breth- 
ren, and consequently how near and familiar he 
seems to us ! how practicable the divine law ap- 
pears, now that we see it carried out in actual 
conduct before ns ! Yes, we perceive how he 
was tried, how he strove, how he triumphed ; 
and in this we have at once an example and a 
motive. All the dispositions we are invited to 
cherish, he cherished ; all the virtues we are 
called upon to practise, he practised; the complete 
character we are bidden to form, he formed. Our 
model is before us ; our instruments are put into 
our hands ; our work we are shown, both by word 



94 



and by hand, how to execute ; and our reward, 
as was his, is in the heavens. Far otherwise 
would the case be with us, were we forced to be- 
hold in Jesus the eternal, self-existent, infinite 
Jehovah ; and perplexed, withal, by the other 
strange and contradictory doctrines connected 
with that theory. Who does not at once discern 
the superiority of such views respecting the Sa- 
viour, especially as regards their influence on 
human motives and conduct, over others that 
have prevailed in the Church ? They are all sim- 
ple, easily understood, accordant with the dictates 
of reason, obviously the only ones sustained by 
the current language of Scripture, and entirely 
practical. Practical, I say ; and I beg you to ob- 
serve how manifestly the fact is so, by adverting, 
for one moment, to a point which Calvinism sets 
prominently forth, as if it were of the utmost im- 
portance ; and yet how such a speculation can 
exert any good influence on human motive and 
conduct, it would puzzle a plain, unsophisticated 
mind to conceive. I refer to the great object of 
Christ's mission, which the dark theology above 
named affirms, among other incredible things, to 
have been, that he might suffer, as a substitute 
for our totally depraved race or the elect portions 
of it, the full amount of punishment incurred by 
them through Adam's fall and their own trans 
gressions, that so God might be enabled or in- 
duced to treat them with favor. Not thus, 



IN BELIEF AND PEACTICE. 95 

however, does the theology of Liberal Christians 
and of the Bible teach. What, according to 
them, was the leading object of Christ's mission ? 
As I proceed to answer the question in a few 
words, my hearers will notice how all he was 
commissioned to do and suffer has a practical 
bearing on man's character and conduct. Christ 
came into the world, then, not, as Calvinism as- 
serts, to quench God's wrath ; not to satisfy di- 
vine justice ; not to cancel the demands of the 
moral law on our race ; not to supply man's 
deficiencies by a substitution of his own obe- 
dience ; not to suffer, in his own innocent person, 
the punishment due to Adam, and the myriads 
of our race after him, for their depravity : but he 
came for other purposes, — purposes worthy of 
the character and government of the wise and 
beneficent Father who sent him ; he came to de- 
liver us from our own vices, instead of having to 
do with the sin of our first progenitor ; he came 
to make us do our own duty, instead of perform- 
ing that duty for us ; he came to induce us to 
obey the law, instead of answering the claims of 
that law himself ; he came to prompt us to per- 
sonal obedience, instead of putting his obedience 
in the place of our own ; he came to quench the 
fire of bad passion burning within ourselves, in- 
stead of that of God's anger; he came to en- 
throne the principles of justice in human hearts, 
instead of satisfying the divine justice ; he came 



96 



to win us to our Heavenly Father, who is, and 
always was, ready to pardon the returning sinner, 
instead of altering the mind of Deity by paying 
him an equivalent for man's transgression ; he 
came, in fine, to destroy the kingdom of evil 
within us, and to establish there the kingdom 
of good, by giving us a religion replete with 
directions, motives, and all needed assistances, 
whereby we might subdue the power of sin, eradi- 
cate false sentiments, be filled with love to God, 
with love to man, with all fit desires of duty, 
and thus to put us in the way of working out our 
own salvation. This, this, is what our blessed Sa- 
viour came for. All that he did and suffered was 
designed to operate, not on God, but on mankind ; 
all was intended to help men to become holy, 
that they might be happy. How reasonable as 
well as scriptural, how beautiful, how worthy of 
the beneficent Father above, how useful to his 
children, does not all this seem ! Who does not 
perceive in this, as in other respects, the advan- 
tage of our views over doctrines that have for 
ages been the burden of human creeds and cate- 
chisms ? 

Practical, I say ; and, I beseech you, let not the 
advantage be lost upon us. Let it not be in vain 
for us, that we see in Jesus, and in his divine 
religion, so much to animate and encourage us ; 
that we find every thing pertaining to his charac- 
ter and labors and sufferings intended and suited 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 97 

to have a direct bearing on our own minds, hearts, 
and lives. Oh, shame, shame on us, if, with such 
views, our Saviour is not loved and obeyed by us ; 
if he does not take strong hold on our sym- 
pathies ; if he does not draw us after him with a 
force and uniformity unknown where a false the- 
ology prevails ; if, with such a vocation as ours, 
we do not strive, with a zeal and constancy like 
that of the primitive disciples, to walk worthily 
of it! 

4. How beautiful, we say, in the fourth place, 
is our theory of Christian charity ! What is it ? 
That no good person shall be excluded from our 
love for honest difference of opinion ; no faith- 
ful seeker after truth condemned for conclusions 
he could not help arriving at; no one treated 
with unkindness for choosing, in the fair ex- 
ercise of his freedom and judgment, a faith, 
church, or sect different from our own : but that 
all, of whatever name or party, who believe in 
Christ and aim to obey him, ought to be regarded 
as brethren, and esteemed according to their 
moral worth. Can any thing, we ask, be better 
than this ? Let such a law of mutual respect, 
affection, and behavior prevail, and there would 
be something of heaven itself on earth. Who 
can contemplate thus our theory of Christian 
charity, without being enamoured with it ? But 
theory, brethren, is of little avail, except it be re- 
duced to practice. No doubt, Liberal Christians 
7 



98 



in general are really, as well as professedly, more 
charitable than others. From their churches no 
good person is excluded on account of mere dif- 
ference of opinion : wherever their principles have 
sway, individuals are not subjected to persecution 
for not agreeing with the majority on the disputed 
points of controversial theology. All enjoy free- 
dom of thought and of speech ; and the only 
qualifications deemed essential for full commu- 
nion in the bonds of Christianity are a sincerely 
good heart and a truly virtuous life, growing out 
of faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ. Still, 
notwithstanding the general practice, among Lib- 
eral Christians, of these principles of an enlarged 
charity which they profess, there are doubtless 
some exceptions. How is it with us ? permit me 
to ask again. I judge no man ; but it is mine 
to beseech you that ye walk worthily of the vo- 
cation with which ye are called. I conjure all 
who are liberal in theory, to be liberal in practice, 
and to maintain a strict correspondence between 
the charity they profess and the charity they 
exercise. Common consistency puts in no less a 
claim than this ; and this — who does not know ? 
— Christ himself has made one of the tests of 
discipleship. 

5. Again, my hearers, what is our habit of 
thinking and speaking of the Holy Scriptures 
and of human creeds ? The latter we hold to be 
worthless or worse ; the former, as above all price. 



IN BELIEF AND PEACTICE. 99 

The Bible, the Bible, we say, is our rule of faith 
and conduct. To others we leave the formularies 
of men's devising: as for ourselves, no writings 
shall even seem to stand upon equal footing with 
those of the sacred volume. Here is the charter 
of our privileges ; here the sure guide to the whole 
duty of man. What to us are human creeds and 
confessions, and decrees of popes, bishops, syn- 
ods, and councils, while we have in our hands 
this precious book, this full expression of the 
mind of God respecting his children, this suf- 
ficient treasury of divine truth touching our ori- 
gin, our nature, our duty, and our destination ? 
We want no more than this. The Bible, with the 
reason God has given us to interpret and apply 
it, we hold to be enough. To the law and the 
testimony, not to catechisms and covenants which 
man's ingenuity has contrived, do we choose to 
recur in all matters of religious doubt and diffi- 
culty. So we say, and we say well. But let us 
not forget, brethren, that there is something to 
be done as well as said. How are we using this 
holy volume, which we profess to value so highly ? 
My brother, art thou a Liberal Christian ? and 
dost thou, after all thy declared respect for the 
Sacred Scriptures as the authoritative standard 
in matters of faith and practice, neglect them ? 
Is this blessed book seen on thy shelf covered 
over with the dust of many months ? Then let 
me say to thee, in all plainness of speech, thou 



100 



art but a poor representative of the class of 
Christians to which thou belongest. Thy con- 
duct gives the lie to thy profession. Thine incon- 
sistency is disgraceful. It is worse : thyself art 
injured by it ; thy brethren in the faith are sad- 
dened ; and the cause of Christ and of God is 
prejudiced by it. I beseech thee, change thy 
practice ; make it accord with thy principles ; 
and henceforth, in this respect as in others, 
walk worthily of the vocation wherewith thou art 
called. 

6. Take, finally, the views we cherish of the 
great law of future recompense. We think them 
scriptural and rational ; and we believe they 
afford the strongest dissuasives from sin, and the 
most powerful inducements to holiness. While 
with unutterable horror we turn from the Cal- 
vinist doctrine of everlasting hell-torments, and 
while we reject all theories of arbitrary, vindictive 
dispensations of rewards and punishment under 
the divine government, we hold that there is a 
connection between vice and misery, and between 
virtue and happiness, as natural and indissoluble 
as that which belongs to any class of causes and 
effects. In other words, the bad man does or 
will suffer in proportion to his badness, and the 
good man does or will enjoy in proportion to his 
goodness, as certainly and as accordantly with the 
established principles of Nature and Providence, 
as a living seed, put into the warm, moist earth, 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 101 

does or will vegetate. Nor is this law, as we 
believe, restricted in its operation exclusively 
either to the present or to the future world. It 
belongs to both worlds. The dissolution of the 
body may modify some of its results, but will not 
essentially alter the character of them. We hold 
that this life and the next is one continuous state 
of existence, so that all which is strictly ourself 
here, will be ourself there. Death we look upon 
only as a brief passage-way from the one to the 
other, through which the soul is but a moment, 
as it were, in going ; carrying with it all its 
habits of thought and feeling, all its capacities, 
tastes, and preferences, — all, in a word, of virtue 
and happiness, or of vice and misery, — it com- 
menced in this introductory state of its being. 
Can any views be more reasonable, or more scrip- 
tural, or more effective for holiness, than these ? 
When, under the full impression of the truth 
of such doctrine, we listen to the exhortation, 
"Walk worthily of your high vocation," who 
of us can remain indifferent? who unmoved? 
How much has the sinner, who repents not, to 
fear ! How much has the virtuous man to hope 
for ! brethren ! let us bring this subject close 
home to our inmost soul. What ! is it a fact, sup- 
ported alike by reason and revelation, and have 
we not the least doubt of it, that misery is bound 
to vice, and happiness to virtue, by ties which 
neither time nor death will sever ; that there is a 



102 THE UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, 

law of just recompense, whose operation nothing 
can long counteract; that as we sow we shall 
sooner or later reap ; that we must enter on the 
future life with the same intellectual and moral 
qualities with which we leave the present ; and 
that our condition there will correspond, at any 
given period, with the character we possess at 
that period, — is all this true, and do we believe 
it ? What manner of persons, then, ought we to 
be ? What purity, what intelligence, what holi- 
ness, what efforts for every virtue and every grace 
that can ennoble and adorn our nature, should 
not distinguish us ? 

My hearers, I might pursue this subject much 
further. It would be easy to show, that all the dis- 
tinctive articles of our faith, all our leading prin- 
ciples, have, in point of simplicity, reasonableness, 
scriptural authority, harmony, power, and beauty, 
peculiar and great practical advantages ; and that, 
on the equitable ground that from them to whom 
much is given much is required, we, as a class of 
Christians, ought to be better, a great deal better, 
than others. 

But I have already gone sufficiently into detail. 
It remains to me only, in conclusion, to present 
a brief sketch of the sort of character we should 
not fail, each and all of us, to exhibit, if we did 
but walk worthily of our vocation ; if we were 
disposed, at all times and in all places, to act 
up to the principles of our profession, as stated 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 103 

in the foregoing discourse. What is this char- 
acter ? 

First, It is that of one who, considering his 
nature a good nature, the gift of God, and a 
treasure of unspeakable value, is thankful for it, 
takes care of it, respects it, speaks well of it, 
cultivates its capacities and powers, shuns what- 
ever can sully its brightness, and seeks associa- 
tion with every thing that can help to improve, 
ennoble, and adorn it. 

Secondly, It is that of one who habitually looks 
up to God as to a Father and Friend ; loves the 
Being upon whom he is so dependent, and to 
whom he is so much indebted ; delights to hold 
communion with him; and aims to have his 
actions and temper agree, in all respects, with 
the divine will. 

Thirdly, It is that of one who, regarding Jesus 
Christ as God's chosen Son, sent for the good of 
man, directs his thoughts towards this wise and 
gracious Saviour with love and gratitude ; and, 
while he admires the truth he taught and the 
example he left to his followers, obeys the one, 
and imitates the other. 

Fourthly, It is that of one who is full of char- 
ity ; who abounds in affectionate regards for his 
neighbor ; who cherishes, always and everywhere, 
kind feelings towards, not only those who agree 
with him in opinion, but those also who differ ; 
and who avails himself of all fit opportunities for 
doing good to his fellow-men. 



104 THE UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, 

Fifthly, It is that of one who, while he respects 
and reverences the records of divine revelation 
contained in the Bible, is a constant reader of 
them ; who deems it alike a privilege and a duty 
to recur to them for guidance, motive, and conso- 
lation ; and who, animated by the holy spirit they 
breathe, strives to act by the great moral rules 
they teach, in daily practice. 

Finally, It is that of one who, knowing that he 
lives not for the present alone, but also for the 
future, provides for the coming ages, by forming 
habits of thought, feeling, and conduct, that will 
make him happy when the flesh decays and falls 
off, and when the immortal mind, released from 
the body and removed from this material world, 
must depend, for joy and hope, on resources 
within itself, and on those spiritual fountains of 
bliss to which the pure and virtuous soul alone 
can have access. 

Such, my hearers, if I understand the subject, 
is that sort of character which is exhibited by 
the Liberal Christian who walks worthily of the 
vocation wherewith he is called. Can there be 
an individual here, having the heart of a human 
being in him, that does not approve and desire to 
possess this character ? Who, if wise, would not 
sacrifice any worldly good for its attainment ? 
How sublime, how beautiful, beyond expression, 
is such an example of cultivated, sanctified, per- 
fected human nature ! It is every thing we were 



IN BELIEF AND PRACTICE. 105 

created to be ; every thing we should pray and 
strive to become; every thing that can secure 
respect, love, joy, and hope on earth ; and every 
thing that fits for honor, glory, and happiness in 
heaven. 

God grant that here, under the continued min- 
istrations of a rational and scriptural Christian- 
ity, specimens of such a character may abound, 
for the glory of the Father of all and his blessed 
Son, for the present and future welfare of this 
community, and for the credit and furtherance of 
the incorrupt gospel in the world ! 



106 man's ability 



III. 

MAN'S ABILITY THE MEASURE OF HIS DUTY. 
Matt. xxv. 15: "Every man according to his several 

ABILITY." 

We have here a point to which I wish to call 
your attention this afternoon. It is, that every 
one is able to do what God requires of every one ; 
or, in other words, God looks to us for that, and 
only that, which he has given us the ability to 
render. He who receives ten talents is responsi- 
ble for ten ; he who has five, for five ; and he 
who has but one, for only this one. The subject, 
if I mistake not, is one of great practical impor- 
tance. Oar ability is the measure of our duty. 
We can do all that our Heavenly Father demands 
of us ; and the question, often as he shall call us 
to account, will be, " Have we done what we were 
able to do ? " 

I repeat : We can do all that God requires of us. 
In stating this proposition, rational and scrip- 
tural as it is, I oppose a prevalent notion, encour- 
aged for ages by false theologies, — which is this: 
that, in our spiritual concerns, we can do little or 



THE MEASURE OF HIS DUTY. 107 

nothing for ourselves ; or, in other words, that 
to say we have done what we were able, though 
we say it ever so truly, will not avail to our ac- 
ceptance with God. Those false theologies, which 
rule many minds even in our day, assert, that all 
the strivings of any man to be good, all the 
works of righteousness which any man can per- 
form, amount to just nothing in respect to his 
salvation, unless he was chosen thereunto from 
the foundation of the world ; unless he has been 
regenerated or made over again by supernatural 
power ; and unless he has a certain view of, or 
faith in, one atonement, whereby the merits of 
another can be put to his own credit. Or, to ex- 
press the theory in different language, the great 
and good Being whom we call our Father in 
heaven will never approve, accept, and bless his 
children, either for their intrinsic goodness or 
for the good they themselves have done, but only 
on account, or for the sake, of some outside con- 
siderations, such as the decree of election, and 
the operation of the Holy Ghost, and the vica- 
rious death of the second person of a triune 
God. 

Now, brethren, such a statement of doctrine as 
this may seem very strange to us ; and some may 
doubt whether anybody ever believed it. But 
history informs us, that, during long centuries, it 
was the creed of a vast majority of Christians ; 
and it is, at this hour, to be found among the 



108 



written formularies of faith in thousands of 
churches. And though we may fancy that it 
has nearly died out in our neighborhood, yet 
its influence is still very extensively felt. For 
though most intelligent and reflecting persons do 
not fall into the extreme of supposing that the 
qualifications for divine favor can be obtained in 
the arbitrary manner above indicated, yet there 
is, nevertheless, a confused notion, very preva- 
lent, that religion is a sort of thing by itself; and 
that a habit of piety, acceptable to God, is differ- 
ent in its nature, origin, and progress, from all 
other acquired habits and affections of the mind : 
so that the same principles and rules which apply 
to the formation, discipline, and improvement of 
the one, are not equally applicable to the other ; 
or, in other words, that for one to be able to say 
he has done what he was able is not enough for 
his salvation, unless he happens, at the same 
time, to believe in the doctrines of grace, as 
they are called, to which reference has just been 
made. 

Now, I take it upon me to assert, that the theo- 
logical theory adverted to is not only false, but 
that it has been the nurse of many speculative 
errors, and, what is worse, of many mischievous 
practical consequences ; for example, — 

1. It has led superficial thinkers to combine 
the idea of something mysterious, unintelligible, 
and impracticable with religion ; giving multi- 



THE MEASURE OP HIS DUTY. 109 

tudes the impression, that Christianity is either 
irrational and contradictory to the laws of human 
nature, or incapable of being reduced to practice 
by human exertions : and thus it has served as 
pretext for scepticism. 

2. It has also been a source of much anxiety 
and uneasiness to many truly serious and upright 
minds, and has deprived them of the satisfaction 
to which they were entitled from the conscious- 
ness of general integrity, by leading them to 
imagine that something else was necessary to se- 
cure the favor of God, beside a faithful perform- 
ance of every known duty ; and, not having any 
distinct notion what this something was, they 
have been tormented with groundless apprehen- 
sions, lest they might be found deficient in that 
which the Judge of all would deem essential to 
their salvation. 

3. Again, it has led not a few into errors still 
more harmful, by inducing them to substitute 
something foreign to the true nature of religion, 
or at least something that is merely accidental 
to it, or perhaps a single branch of it, for the 
whole of Christian duty, which implies the uni- 
form and daily practice of virtue and piety ; so 
that, while a disproportionate attention has been 
paid to the circumstantials of religion, a total 
neglect has prevailed in many quarters as to 
those moral habits which are of vital importance. 
Thus, some have placed the essence of religion 



110 man's ability 

in a warm attachment to articles of belief, and 
have hoped to deserve heaven by untiring secta- 
rian zeal for prescribed creeds. Others have 
imagined their religion to be most acceptable 
to God, and best fitted to secure them salvation, 
when it was concerned in the greatest degree 
possible with outward ceremonies, such as fasts 
and penances, and all sorts of ritual observances. 
Still another class, by no means small, have sup- 
posed that their religion, in order to its being in 
the largest measure well pleasing in the divine 
sight, must consist in ecstasies of feeling, in rap- 
tures of pious sentiment ; which, however, as 
all thoughtful observers know, depend often and 
very much upon the state of the animal spirits 
and bodily health ; which are frequently expe- 
rienced by persons of little deeply seated re- 
ligious principle, but of irritable tempers ; and 
to which many conscientious people, who strive 
every hour to do their duty, but whose natural 
feelings are less excitable, are entire strangers. 
Others, again, have fancied that they were in the 
safest way to heaven when thinking and speak- 
ing most disparagingly of human nature, and 
most extravagantly of God's -sovereign grace in 
the conversion of sinners ; and when, in accord- 
ance with this mode of thought and speech, they 
were rendering themselves as passive as possible, 
and as dependent as it was in their power to do 
upon special divine influences from above. Ask 



THE MEASURE OP HIS DUTY. Ill 

persons of this sort why they are not good, prac- 
tical Christians, and they are ready to say, "Oh, 
this vile nature of ours ! " — " How can we do any 
thing of ourselves ? " Ask them again, and the 
answer may be, that " God has not yet seen fit to 
convert us." — "We are waiting for the regen- 
erating influences of the Holy Spirit." Thus, 
the false notion which I have before alluded to 
is made the apology for positive disobedience, or 
at least for useless inactivity* Now, it has often 
seemed to me, that this erroneous idea is a cause 
of more spiritual inaction, and is therefore more 
hostile to Christian improvement, than most of 
the other speculative errors in theology which 
have found currency in the world. As far as it 
is practically cherished, it renders powerless the 
noblest and most effective motives to virtue. 
Religion, in this view, becomes the foe, instead 
of the friend, of morality. Convince a boy that 
he can do nothing towards getting a living, and 
that his father is able and willing to do every 
thing, and what have you done but put a notion 
in his head that will tend to make him lazy 
and inefficient ? So, persuade men that they 
are by nature impotent for good, and God is 
the only agent in their salvation, and do you not 
thereby lessen their inducement to work for them- 
selves ? 

4. There is still another class of people, who, 
instead of doing what they are able, — instead of 



112 man's ability 

looking upon the gospel as a system of means 
and motives, whereby they may, if they please, 
work out their own salvation, — are in the habit 
of making their religion consist in a sort of inact- 
ive love of Christ ; in committing themselves to 
Christ ; in throwing themselves into the arms of 
Christ, as some express it ; in relying on him 
alone for salvation ; in trusting wholly in his 
mediation and atonement for their acceptance 
with God. Let me not be misunderstood. In 
such a regard for Christ, and for what he hath 
done for mankind, as he taught his followers to 
cherish, is most certainly to be found every 
one's high interest and bounden duty. But the 
fault of the persons to whom I refer is, that 
theirs is an inactive regard. It is a dependence 
on what has been done for them that prevents 
them doing what they are able for themselves. 
Whereas, they ought to remember, that all which 
Jesus has done for them, indescribably great as 
are his benefactions, will be in vain, so far as 
they are concerned, unless they turn these bene- 
factions of his to a practical use ; i.e., unless 
they make them the means and motives of active 
obedience to God's moral law. And this state- 
ment agrees with the words of the Saviour him- 
self: "He that hath my commandments, and 
Jceejyeth them, he it is that loveth me." It agrees, 
too, with the whole tenor of the New Testament. 
In a word, Scripture and reason agree in teach- 



THE MEASURE OF HIS DUTY. 113 

ing that every man has a work to do himself; 
that Christ has done nothing which will benefit 
Mm whose presumptuous reliance on the Saviour's 
merits, whatever those may be, is thought suffi- 
cient to excuse him from laboring to acquire 
virtue of his -own. "She hath done what she 
could." This, you remember, was what called 
forth the benediction of Jesus on one of the 
Marys ; and not the application, on the part of 
the woman, of Christ's righteousness to make 
up her deficiencies. Indeed, the application of 
Christ's righteousness to ourselves, though a 
common expression in theological formularies, is 
a phrase altogether unscriptural and absurd. 
Righteousness is personal: no one can give it 
to another. True, the righteousness of the Son 
of God was perfect ; but no direct transfer of a 
particle of it can be made to us. The only way 
we can be profited by Christ's righteousness is 
by making it our pattern ; or by so using his 
truth, his will, his whole religion, that we may 
work out a righteousness of our own, like his in 
quality, if not in measure. 

I have spoken of some of the speculative errors 
and mischievous practical consequences which 
flow from the false notion, that something more 
than doing what we are able is necessary to 
ensure the favor of God. There are many others 
that might be mentioned ; but I pass them by 
unnoticed, that I may suggest a few considera- 

8 



114 man's ability 

tions, adapted to strengthen our confidence in 
the fact, that we have the ability, all and each 
of us, to do every thing that God requires of us, 
every thing that is necessary to our salvation. 
And here it is difficult for me entirely to sup- 
press the feeling that I undertake to prove what 
is self-evident to every mind. But I correct 
myself. I must not forget the immense power of 
education, and the prevalence of false maxims 
in a community, to bias and darken the youthful 
mind, so as to render it incapable, in mature 
years, of discerning accurately what else it might 
apprehend with perfect ease and correctness. It 
has been so long customary to look upon human 
nature as a mass of moral corruption and utter 
helplessness, and to pervert the meaning of certain 
scriptural expressions, — such as " called," " con- 
verted," "regenerated," and the like, — so as to 
make them express a supposed supernatural 
change, which, according to the popular system, 
takes place from a state of nature to a state of 
grace in those who are elected by the sovereign 
pleasure of God from the rest of the world, — that 
religion has come to be regarded as something to- 
tally different in its nature, origin, and progress, 
from every other habit and affection ; as some- 
thing that bears no analogy to any other human 
acquisition, either in its source or in its growth ; 
as something, in fine, which, instead of being ac- 
quired by the use of natural and efficient means, 



THE MEASURE OF HIS DUTY. 115 

in the way of mental and moral habits, is wholly 
an extrinsic quality, and superintended by a for- 
eign and miraculous influence, and is only to be 
found in those who, by special favor, are chosen 
to salvation. The case being so, my friends, 
there may be occasion for trying to prove what 
else it would be lost labor to attempt. 

I proceed, then, to say, that there is a sense in 
which every pious heart feels the maxim, " We 
can do nothing of ourselves," to be perfectly 
true, and of the highest importance. When we 
mean by it that all our powers of body and mind 
are originally the gift of God ; that it is his 
ever-present energy that continues and supports 
them ; that, if his influence were withdrawn, our 
strength would instantly be dissolved into more 
than infant weakness, and the loftiest human 
faculties would be unequal to the smallest exer- 
tion, — we say no more than all reason and all 
Scripture justify and confirm. But the fullest 
conviction of the truth, that we can do nothing 
originally of ourselves and independently of the 
sustaining power of the Deity, is consistent with 
the belief, that we can do all that Grod has given us 
the ability to do; so that, in an important sense, — 
nay, in every practical sense, — you perceive it 
would be a falsehood to say we can do nothing. 
Has God given me the power to stretch out my 
hand ? — then it would be false to say I cannot 
stretch it out. Has God given me the power 



116 man's ability 

to exert certain intellectual faculties, such as 
reason, memory, and judgment ? — then it would 
be false to say I cannot exert them. Has God 
given me the power to choose between good and 
evil, right and wrong, and also the power of se- 
curing the one and avoiding the other ? — then 
it would be false to say I cannot exercise these 
powers. In a word, has God, by what he has 
done, given me the ability to work out my own 
salvation ? — then it is false to say that I cannot 
work it out. 

Now I take another step, and, instead of speak- 
ing hypothetically, state positively, that God has 
given to each and all of us the ability to work 
out our own salvation, just as much, and pre- 
cisely in the same sense, that he has given us 
the power to stretch out our hand, to use the 
faculties of reason, memory, and judgment, 
and to choose between good and evil ; or, in 
other words, that religion, or, if you please, 
salvation, is exactly as much dependent upon 
our own will and exertion for its attainment, as 
any of our other affections, habits, or posses- 
sions. Were it not so, why are we addressed in 
the Scriptures as free agents, capable of moral 
endeavor, responsible for our actions, and des- 
tined to punishment or reward, according to our 
doings and character ? Indeed, every page of 
the Bible, unless its language be misinterpreted, 
bears testimony to this position. The known 



THE MEASURE OF HIS DUTY. 117 

character of God bears testimony to it. Our 
own reason bears testimony to it. Our expe- 
rience bears testimony to it. Every thing bears 
testimony to the fact that we have the ability to 
do what our Maker requires of us ; or, in other 
words, to perform our duty ; or, in still different 
language, to work out our own salvation. This 
is a conclusion of great practical moment : for 
only convince a man that he is unable to do any 
thing, and he will not be apt to attempt any thing ; 
but, on the other hand, make him know and feel 
that he can do much, and you may expect that he 
will bestir himself at once, and with an energy 
promising success. How important, then, that 
Christian teachers stop ringing all manner of 
changes on the old dogma of man's utter impo- 
tency, and that they set forth clearly and forcibly 
the great, quickening truth, that all, under God, 
can be good and happy, if they will but exert 
themselves ! 

I now advance one step further, and say, not 
only that we have the power to do what God re- 
quires of us, — to work out our own salvation, — 
but also that we shall be judged by the compari- 
son of what we have done with what we could 
do. The man who had received the one talent 
was condemned because he did not use the ability 
he possessed to make it productive. And this is 
the universal rule of the divine procedure. God 
requires of none of his creatures what it is impos- 



118 man's ability 

sible for them to render. He only demands of 
them the service which he has given them the abil- 
ity to perform. They who wish well and do all 
they can for their fellow-men, are just as worthy, 
in the eye of Heaven, as they who, having greater 
means, do more. Yes, it is doing well according 
to our ability that qualifies us for God's favor. 
If every other testimony were silent, the scriptu- 
ral representation of the final judgment would 
establish this position. The one inquiry on that 
solemn occasion will be, Have ye done what ye 
were able to do ? " Not every one that saith 
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, 
but he that doeth the will of my Father." And 
what is this will of the Father ? It is that every 
one do as much as he can. This all-important 
truth is sufficiently taught, to say nothing of 
other passages of Scripture, in the parable of the 
talents. He who had ten was required to render 
ten ; he who had five, to render five ; and he 
who had one was rejected, because he did not 
make a corresponding return, — did not do what 
he was able, — but went and buried the talent in 
the earth. 

My friends, many important practical inferences 
may be derived from the subject. 1. First, It 
affords encouragement to all to enter upon a 
course of virtuous conduct. The rewards of vir- 
tue are not confined to men of the greatest ability. 
Every one will be recompensed according to what 



THE MEASUKE OP HIS DUTY. 119 

he does, be his ability ever so small. We have 
all, therefore, whether high or low, rich or poor, 
powerful or weak, learned or ignorant, equal 
encouragement, so far as relates to divine accept- 
ance, to cultivate a virtuous temper and live a 
virtuous life. 

2. Secondly, It suggests consolation to those 
who have failed in their well-meant endeavors. 
Do you, benefactor of men, — do you sigh that 
your efforts to do good are so often in vain ; 
that you find yourself so frequently crossed by 
the malevolence of the wicked, or the mistaken 
sentiments and incorrigible prejudices of the 
weak ? and, when you sit down after the fer- 
vent but ineffectual struggle, do you feel your 
heart sicken within you ? I bid you be of good 
courage, and console yourself with the thought 
that you have done what you were able, and 
that Heaven sees your sincerity, and will re- 
ward your well-meant though unsuccessful 
endeavors. 

3. Again, our subject should lead us to look 
round with love and respect upon all honest and 
good men, however confined in their sphere of 
usefulness. There is nothing contemptible in 
natural weakness. They who do all they can 
are approved of God : let us approve them too. 
We must not judge the world by what is done 
alone, but by this in connection with the ability 
there is of doing. There is much effort that we 



120 man's ability, etc. 

do not see, much that is not crowned with suc- 
cess. There is kindness, whose gifts are scanty 
on account of limited means of bestowing. The 
poor have many friends that cannot feed them ; 
many that must content themselves with a friend's 
feelings, without being able to put bread into 
their mouths. But they have done what they 
were able, and are doing what they can ; and let 
us look upon them with the favoring eye with 
which Jesus beheld the indigent woman who cast 
into the treasury her single mite, which was all 
she had. 

4. But, in the last place, let us not forget that 
certainly we are called upon to do all which we 
are able. Less than this will not answer the 
demand of God, nor satisfy our own consciences. 
There is no substitute for our voluntary de- 
ficiencies. We must suffer in exact proportion 
as we fall short of what we have the ability to 
perform. I pray you, then, to act up to the 
capacities and powers of your nature, and the 
privileges and opportunities you enjoy ; and take 
that course through life which alone can recom- 
mend you to God, and secure for you the happi- 
ness promised to the virtuous. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 121 



IV. 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

COMMAND TO "WORK. TIME. SPHERE OF ACTION. 

Matt. xxi. 28: "Sox, go work to-day in my vineyard." 

The coming of a new year is hailed by differ- 
ent hearts with strangely differing emotions, — 
by many with longings, by some with dread, by 
others with dull and thoughtless unconcern. 
There are many who look back with sorrow on 
the old year's wasted track, its neglected harvests 
of good, its follies, and its irrevocable departure ; 
many, too, children of distress, who give thanks 
in pain and sorrow, that it is gone, that a part 
of the long burden of suffering is lifted away. 
There are more, greeting joyfully, without a 
shadow on their hopes, the advent of the new, — 
its fair promises of success, the prize in its right 
hand, of improvement and honor. But to all these 
may be one and the same resolve, — to study 
and to obey the great discipline which the year 
shall surely bring ; to hearken for it, to watch 



122 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

for it, and to heed it ; to make this a new year 
indeed, — new in a more unremitting diligence, 
a more self-sacrificing benevolence, a purer- devo- 
tion, and a braver heroism. " He is in the way 
of life," saith the Scripture, — in the true and 
peaceful way of life, — "who keepeth" in his 
heart and in his deeds its rich and hallowed 
" instruction." That to all the new year may be 
happy, and yet rather that it may be virtuous, — 
that it may be happy by being virtuous, by be- 
ing crowned with disinterested sentiments, noble 
thoughts, and honorable works ; and that it may 
be held long in their grateful remembrance by 
the part it shall have borne in maturing their 
souls into a Christian excellence, — is the fervent 
wish of the preacher. 

But the text, " Go work to-day in my vine- 
yard." Go work : here is a call to action, — a call 
in the gospel from God to every human being ; 
and to it there is something to respond in our 
nature. We feel that to work ought to be, as 
it is, our vocation ; and Christianity does not, 
like some creeds of men's device, contradict this 
sentiment. Christianity does not rebuke our 
energies. It does not repress or paralyze the self- 
helping activity of the manliest heart amongst 
us. It does not mock and tantalize us, by telling 
us that we can do nothing of ourselves, that 
we are helpless, that the power is taken out of 
our hands, that hereditary sin has shorn us 



CALL TO WORK. 123 

of our strength before we had begun to exer- 
cise it, and. that Adam put fetters on our moral 
faculties before we were born. It does not tell 
us, like the Assembly's Catechism, that we can 
do nothing except evil ; but, contrariwise, that, 
exposed and frail and tempted and yielding as 
our moral nature is, it has nevertheless the 
seeds of great harvests, and the elements of 
mighty struggles, and the capacity of noble 
resistance, and the guaranty of final triumph in 
it. It does not smite us into flat dejection by 
telling us we can do nothing : it assures us, and 
by all solemn warnings bids us hearken to the 
assurance, that through Christ and God, whom 
we are sure to find by seeking, we can do all 
things ; all things, that is, which belong to duty. 
The great and good Father above, says, " Go 
work in my vineyard ; " says this to each one 
of us, to the feeblest as well as the strongest, 
to those that have abused and wronged them- 
selves by past self-indulgence. Go work: this 
is the great injunction of the gospel to every 
human being. Thus the religion of Christ offers 
its appeal to the strongest self-respect and the 
bravest temper. It repeats no nursery tales to 
beguile a childish fancy into the persuasion that 
man is impotent. It deals with ponderous reali- 
ties about his power and obligation. It offers 
weighty reasons, and asks a weighty considera- 
tion, respecting his ability and work. It gives 



124 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

the instruments and the motives, and demands a 
service. It takes for granted the capacity of 
every soul to be holy, and abhor iniquity ; to for- 
sake the wicked, and live with the righteous ; to 
work out its own salvation, and to do good in the 
world: and it expects that capacity will not be 
disowned nor forfeited. It speaks in the stormy 
notes of a trumpet. Its tone is animating, not 
depressing ; quickening, not stupefying ; inspir- 
ing, not disheartening. It calls to action. It 
says, Go ivork; and it promises a fitting reward. 
And thus it is a message of substantial cheerful- 
ness and encouragement, such as we want at the 
opening of a new year. 

Go work to-day. I now emphasize another part 
of the text ; namely, to-day. That is, whatever ye 
find should be done, this do immediately. Chris- 
tianity no more allows the postponement of a 
duty than the neglect of it. The Saviour said, 
on a certain occasion, " That which thou doest, 
do quickly." And in accordance with this is the 
spirit of the whole gospel. Do you ask, Why 
such urgency ? The reasons are as obvious as 
they . are many and strong. Go work to-day, 
because the present is the only opportunity of 
which you are sure. No one can tell what to- 
morrow may bring forth. We have no pledge 
of the continuance of life. We have nothing to 
depend upon but the mercy of that God to whose 
service we are required to devote ourselves now. 



THE TIME. 125 

We look around in vain for those whom we saw 
here a year ago. Could they appear to us this 
morning, is there any thing, do you think, that 
they would urge upon us more earnestly than to 
discharge immediately the duties which God has 
laid upon us ? In another year, there will be 
those present in this sanctuary who will have to 
see places made vacant by death, which are now 
filled by the living. Yes, brethren, it is certain, 
that, before that period shall arrive, some of us 
will be in our graves. That we are all liable to 
death, at any moment, should incite us to perform 
the duty of each hour as it passes ; for no hour 
can be recalled, and any hour may be our last on 
earth. 

Go work to-day, because procrastination does 
but render the performance of duty at any time 
more unlikely. The motives to it may never 
appear so strong to our minds as they do at pres- 
ent. The subject may not again be pressed upon 
us ; and some change in our circumstances may 
place us out of the hearing of these calls, and 
out of the power of using the means with which 
we are now favored. We may be prevailed upon, 
by some considerations of pleasure or wealth, to 
abandon the ordinances of worship. Then, too, 
by delay, we contract the habit of making ex- 
cuses, our hearts become more insensible, and 
the world rivets upon us some new shackle. 

Go work to-day, because, should you have time 



126 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

enough allotted you in future, and should you be 
brought to see the error of your ways, repent- 
ance will be bitter, and perhaps of little worth. 
Certainly it will be bitter. No man, who has the 
heart of a man in him, can look back, in the mo- 
ments of awakened moral sensibility, upon a life 
devoted to sin, without indescribable pain. Why 
shall we now pursue a course that exposes us to 
this terrible retribution ? It may be, too, that 
our repentance will be, if it come too late, of no 
great value. What is thought to be reformation 
at the eleventh hour is much to be suspected, as 
only the effect of fear, or as a state of mind pro- 
duced by the prospect of death, without any sin- 
cere love of God and duty. 

Go work to-day, because the whole life ought 
to be devoted to piety and virtue. If God has 
a claim upon us in any period of our existence, 
it is in the present one. We are as strongly 
bound to be Christian men and women now, as 
we shall be when old age arrives, and death is 
near. Then, too, in proportion to the length 
of our holy service will be the largeness of our 
recompense. He who begins to-day to live as a 
Christian should, will, in the ages that are to 
come, be greatly better off than he that defers 
entering on such a life to a day far distant. And, 
furthermore, let us consider how much sorrow 
we may prevent by an immediate consecration of 
ourselves to duty ; how many our example may 



SPHERE OF ACTION. 127 

influence for good ; how many may be awakened 
by our determination to serve the Lord betimes. 
Let us consider also how many may be encour- 
aged to go on in wrong courses by our delay ; 
and how their sufferings, as well as ours, may be 
increased by our neglect and procrastination. 

Go work to-day, because the invitations of 
Heaven are so affectionate and so pressing. Ev- 
ery page of the sacred volume, the voice of nature, 
and the teachings of Divine Providence, all urge 
us to the immediate performance of duty. Think 
of the Father, to whom we are indebted for all 
things ; think of Jesus Christ, who poured out 
his blood for us ; think of the rewards of the 
good and the shame of the bad ; think of the eyes 
in heaven and on the earth which are bent upon 
us, to see how we act our part ; think of our 
parents, children, friends, whose own happiness 
is so intimately bound up in us ; think of all 
there is to incite us to instant duty, — and you 
will not, you cannot, as it seems to me, delay till 
another year what all know ought to be done in 
this. 

Son, go work in my vineyard. Vineyard ! 
what and where is this ? Not a spot far off from 
us ; not a field which another may cultivate in 
our stead. Every one has his allotted sphere 
of action, every one his place to work in, and it 
is near him. First, wherever a man's business is, 
there is his vineyard. But remember what the 



128 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

whole significance of business is. It is to ob- 
tain food and raiment and shelter for ourselves 
and families. But this is not the only or the 
chief end of business. It is also ordained to 
build up and discipline the character ; and each 
day's business is working important results in 
every active person. Upright and benevolent con- 
duct is converting transient impulse into lasting 
principle ; and so of the opposite : dishonest and 
mean acts are smiting the soul with paralysis ; 
and, when all the outward results of business 
shall pass away, the inward results will remain. 
Business life in general is like the caster's mould- 
ing sand: by means of it the spirit is taking 
enduring forms. The dishonest man's gains are 
transient; but his soul, that was cramped and 
debased in acquiring those unmerited gains, is 
permanent, and God only knows when the injury 
he has inflicted upon himself can be removed. 
You have seen the green oak's trunk bent, con- 
fined, and measured in its crooked posture ; and 
yet it is nothing to straighten again that sturdy 
wood, compared with rectifying a spirit that has 
been warped and twisted by acts of dishonesty 
and falsehood. My friends, beware of distorting 
the spirit ; business upon vicious principles will 
most assuredly do it ; and therefore God has sent 
his messengers to say to you, Deal justly, love 
mercy, walk humbly, and live righteously. Take 
these thoughts with you, and better ones if you 



SPHERE OF THOUGHT. 129 

can obtain them, and enter npon this year's 
business with a clear sight and a worthy purpose. 
Defraud not thy neighbor, harm not thyself; add, 
not only to thy wealth, but to thy character. 

And here we are reminded, secondly, of the 
vineyard within, to be cultivated. Every one 
has an intellect ; every one has a heart ; every 
one has mental and moral habits, either in the 
bud, or in the blossom, or already in fruit. These 
all require looking after ; these all demand to be 
worked for. Some of them may be growing 
aright ; but labor there must be for their protec- 
tion and guidance and harvesting. Some of them 
may be growing wrongly ; then so much the more 
will there be the need of vigilance and toil in the 
way of correction. Well, therefore, in respect 
to the inner man, may we heed the command, 
"Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." — The 
vineyard of thy thoughts. Here thou mayst find 
something unsettled, something dark, some- 
thing low. Thou mayst be uninformed or 
misinformed; thou mayst give little attention 
where thou shouldst bestow the greatest ; or 
thou mayst be prejudiced where thou fanciest 
thyself impartial and fair. Go, then, and work 
for thy thoughts ; fix to-day a new starting- 
point for them ; detach them from unworthy 
objects, and give them a direction Godward and 
heavenward ; increase thy acquaintance with the 
truth ; establish the principles of thy judgment ; 
9 



130 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

bring thy calmness into a harmony ; set up within 
the entire realm of thy thoughts a divine and 
submissive order, which shall be after the pattern 
of that eternal one, in the circles of which thou 
dwellest. — The vineyard of thine affections. Here, 
too, thou mayest meet with much to alter as well 
as to nourish. Thy heart may be cold ; or it may 
be selfish ; or it may be impure ; or it may dislike 
what is good, and hanker after evil. Go, then, 
and work for thy affections ; cleanse them from 
their soils ; brush away the rust and the dust 
that have gathered upon them from vulgar uses 
or a base inaction ; send them forth with a clearer 
light and a more blessed efficacy ; balance them 
well, so that no one shall play the tyrant over 
the others ; clear up thy jealousies ; restrain thy 
resentments ; extend thy sympathies ; strengthen 
the bonds of love that make thee happier as they 
draw tighter ; enlarge thy generosity ; banish the 
selfishness that is an estrangement from God ; 
bring into a beautiful order the dispositions that 
bind thee to thy kindred, to thy house, to thy 
friendships, to thy country, and to thy race. — The 
vineyard of thy faith. This, if truly cherished, 
is a priceless heritage. It stands nobly apart 
from the world's turmoil, the world's command, 
and the world's destruction. Thou canst receive 
no such strength as flows from that. Thou, canst 
receive no such joy as is treasured up in that. 
Hence must thy truest consolation and courage 



SPHERE OF FAITH. 131 

proceed, when sorrow and depression gather over 
the heart. But perhaps it has fallen into neglect 
with thee ; perhaps thou hast forgotten its teach- 
ing ; perhaps thou hast grown insensible to its 
beauty and to thy soul's deepest want ; perhaps 
thou hast lost the perception of what it is, among 
thy pleasures and cares ; perhaps thou hast al- 
lowed a shallow and sluggish scepticism to affront 
its all-embracing principles. Go, then, and work 
for thy faith ; explore its sources anew ; follow 
again the thread of its evidences ; retrace its 
heavenly law ; revive its dying glory ; renew 
the kingdom of the divine and the immortal in 
the breast that will soon cease to beat. Bring 
back that old saving faith, though it cost thee 
much hard work; bring it back, though at the 
sacrifice of what the passions most crave ; bring 
it back, though in the face of many discourage- 
ments ; bring it back in its simplicity, in its 
sovereign beauty, in its reasonableness, and in 
its might. For he who enters upon a new year 
without faith is like him who goes to sea in a 
ship having neither rudder nor anchor. 

Brethren and friends, thus represented, does 
not the Christian life appear practicable and 
beautiful ? There is nothing in it either of mys- 
ticism or gloom. It is a plain matter, which 
commends itself to reason and to conscience. 
It provides at once for all business pursuits and 
for all personal culture. The command is, " Go 



132 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

work to-day in my vineyard." In other words, 
we are bidden to act, to act now, and to act with 
Christian purpose in our appropriate field of duty. 
And if we do this, whatever our task be, whether 
it relate to outward things or to the inner man, 
then it is that we do the work of religion. Can 
we not thus bring religion down to the companion- 
ship of our daily life ; or rather, I should say, 
raise our daily life to a companionship with re- 
ligion ? Thus we make religion a practical thing, 
which it was designed to be, and not a solitary 
dweller in the cloister, or a divinity sitting coldly 
in the temple, to which we are to bow the knee in 
distant homage, but never to take to our hearts 
and carry with us into the busy world. Thus 
each year, each month, week, and day, are made 
Christian. We do not throw on the future a 
burden of repentance and sorrow. We are not 
like the son who said, "I go, and went not ; " 
and, when our final day shall come, we shall only 
have the work of a single day to perform, and 
not a long account to adjust of past time mis- 
spent or abused. We shall have but to bow our 
heads, and go in peace, commending our spirits 
to the Father. 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 133 



V. 

THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

1 Tim. iv. 12 : " Be thou an example of the believers, in 

WORD, IN CONVERSATION, IN CHARITY, IN SPIRIT, IN FAITH, 
IN PURITY." 

Example, as everybody allows, at least in words, 
has great power. In this respect, it stands far 
above precept. You may give the best advice ; 
but little will it avail, if your own behavior con- 
tradicts it. Words of wisdom, in order to work 
much good, must be followed by deeds of wisdom. 
Prescribed rules of conduct are needful ; but vis- 
ible obedience to them is greatly more effective. 
Ethics taught every community wants ; yet it 
is served far better by ethics practised by the 
teacher. Moral precept only points out the way 
we should tread, while example urges us onward 
in that way. The law-^W is not without his 
use ; but the law-deeper exerts a vastly larger 
influence for good. He who speaks to us of duty 
may confer a benefit ; but he who, in our sight, 
performs every duty, is our greatest benefactor. 
What a difference there must have been, in re- 



134 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

spect to salutary influence, between the precepts 
of Jesus in the abstract, and Jesus ever acting, 
— ever showing their practicableness and their 
blessed efficacy in his life ! Vastly more were 
his disciples formed by his conduct than by his 
doctrine. They, indeed, received his teaching as 
law ; but his living was more than law. Law 
only shows what is right, only prescribes what 
ought to be done ; speaking to the intellect rather 
than to the heart. But Christ's example illus- 
trated and enforced this law, appealing to the 
eye, and addressing itself, not only to the under- 
standing, but to the affections ; and what the 
affections are interested in is likely to do most 
for the character. 

Nor, my friends, are any of us so conditioned, 
as not, by our example, to exert a power for evil 
or for good. Two important truths are involved 
in this statement, which I beg you to consider. 
The first of these truths is, that we are all send- 
ing out from us an influence which is producing, 
surely though gradually and imperceptibly, its 
legitimate effects upon those with whom we asso- 
ciate. This influence depends not, for the time 
being, upon our own wills. It is constantly going 
forth, whether we will or not. It depends simply 
upon what we are ; and what we are is the result 
of what we have been and done. The only way in 
which our wills and wishes can alter this influ- 
ence is simply by their effect in altering our 



THE POWER OP EXAMPLE. 135 

characters. It may be our will and our wish 
to become eminently wise and good ; and we may 
be moved by this purpose and desire to put forth 
the efforts necessary to secure high attainments 
in moral and religious excellence. But, when we 
have done this, the influence which may proceed 
from us will merely be in harmony with our 
characters still; will be holy as they are holy, 
and more or less powerful as they are more or 
less advanced in holiness. For the second truth 
is, that the influence which we thus exert by 
our example will correspond in its nature with 
the peculiarities by which our own characters 
are distinguished, and will correspond also, in its 
power over others, with the strength, energy, and 
prominence of these same distinguishing pecu- 
liarities. From these two truths it follows, as a 
practical lesson of great importance, that what 
we would make others, we must be ourselves ; and 
that in order to do our families, our church, 
and the community the most good by our ex- 
ample, we must, in our persons, attain to the 
highest measure of intrinsic moral and religious 
worth ; for I deem futile the outward seemingly 
good acts of men, whose interior life is corrupt, 
but whose policy is, Do this or that useful thing 
for the sake, as they say, of example. 

How eminently practical, as well as important, 
these brief suggestions are, you at once perceive. 
But do they not, at the same time, possess a 



136 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

heart-moving solemnity ? Is it true, that from each 
of us an influence is constantly going forth to 
affect others for weal or for woe ? and is this in- 
fluence doing evil or good, according as our real 
character is vicious or virtuous ? How, then, can 
we but be exceedingly anxious about the quali- 
ties of the life we are living? Should we any 
longer be indifferent to the interior principles 
and feelings and habits we possess ; contenting 
ourselves, as the way of many is, with making 
our outward actions square with the rules of 
moral propriety ? Oh ! let us not be deceived. 
Just consider : a man may talk about piety and 
virtue like an angel ; may inculcate the truths of 
religion upon his children with great directness, 
earnestness, and frequency ; and may externally 
obey all the precepts of the decalogue : while yet, 
at home, in business, and in society, he may be a 
low-minded, hard-hearted, mean-spirited, and bad- 
intentioned wretch. What can his example do ? 
The power of his direct verbal inculcation of 
religious duty, and of his outward observance 
of moral rules, will be counteracted by the silent 
influence, which, in his very air and look and 
manner, he conveys into the hearts of those in 
contact with him. Again, a man may be a firm 
supporter of the institutions of the gospel, a 
constant attendant upon the services of the sanc- 
tuary, an earnest advocate of peculiar doctrines, 
often expressing his approval of the ministra- 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 137 

tions of the pulpit, ever ready to give from his 
wealth to the poor ; and yet he may breathe 
around him, from his inmost soul, upon all who 
associate with him, such a base spirit of worldli- 
ness and sensuality as will effectually close all 
their hearts against whatever he says or does. 
What can Ms example do, except to grieve the 
good, and alienate yet more the bad ? 

And now, my friends, having made these gen- 
eral remarks on the power of example, and its 
essential connection with character, I must be 
permitted, in the plainest and most direct manner, 
to address myself to that class of my hearers for 
whom this discourse is chiefly intended ; namely, 
all those who, in the relation either of parents or 
guardians, have the charge of the young. I shall 
assume that we are already aware of the great 
responsibility that rests upon us. May I not also 
suppose that it is our intent to do all in our 
power to help the children under our care in the 
formation of a highly moral and religious char- 
acter ? But what is our own example doing to 
effect this object ? We all say, then, — and I take 
it for granted we are sincere in the assertion, — 
that our design to secure to our children a good 
moral and religious education was formed many 
years ago ; and that, ever since, we have professed 
it to be our desire and endeavor to prosecute 
this worthy design to its entire accomplishment. 
So far, we deserve commendation. God bless all 



138 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

such purposes and aims, and crown them with 
abundant success ! 

But, my friends, suppose we just pause here 
a moment, and ask ourselves what influence our 
own example is exerting, all the while that our 
wishes and exertions, in other respects, are so 
praiseworthy ? 

Do any of us say, we are very careful about 
what we do before our children ? Yes ; but are 
we equally careful about what we are? We 
should remember, that, as already more than once 
said, the influence of example comes less from 
outward action than from internal character. 

Do any of us say, we often speak to our chil- 
dren of the importance of piety and good morals ? 
But, my friends, do we show, in our manner of 
speech and in our mode of life, that we ourselves 
feel the importance of what we thus recommend ? 
Words, in this matter, have little effect, when the 
spirit is wanting. 

Do any of us say, we spare no pains to explain 
and inculcate the precepts of the gospel ? But, 
my friends, do our children see in us proofs of 
a deep interest in these topics of instruction ? 
Truth of heart and of voice is above all truth of 
doctrine, and will ensure success more than any 
other means. Young ears can distinguish the 
tones of earnest sincerity from those of pretence ; 
and vain, without earnest sincerity, are all a 
parent's teachings. 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 139 

Do any of us say, we are always referring our 
children to the Bible as the best of books ? But, 
my friends, do we read the Bible ourselves ? — 
and with what tokens of reverence and love for 
its contents ? It is not the verbal advice, be 
assured, but the known tastes of the parent's 
inmost mind, that form the child's habits. 

Do any of us say, we are careful to remind 
our sons and daughters of the good God, and bid 
them pray to him night and morning ? But, 
my friends, how do they see us affected by the 
divine presence ? and then do they often find us 
in the attitude of prayer, and hear our voice in 
devout supplication ? or, if so, can they discern 
nothing therein but signs of the heart's engaged- 
ness in the service ? It is but little that a few 
cold words, from an indifferent soul, can do for a 
child's piety, whether they be employed in dis- 
coursing of God, or whether they be used in 
prayer to him : the reality of a devout spirit 
within the parent's own bosom is nearly all that 
is effectual. 

Do any of us say, we are at the cost of having 
seats in the neighboring church, and make it a 
point that our children shall be constant attend- 
ants on public worship? Very well: we could 
not do less as wise parents. But, my friends, 
how is it with ourselves in regard to the great 
privilege and duty of public worship? And if 
we, from indolence or for the sake of some self- 



140 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

indulgence, stay away from the sanctuary half 
the time, how can we expect that the younger 
members of our family will be regularly there ? 
Hardly any thing surprises or pains me more, 
than the well-known fact, that many fathers, in 
other respects quite worthy and respectable, are 
so inconsistent and so thoughtless of the power 
of example, as to resign themselves to their 
couch, or to the luxury of a newspaper and cigar, 
on Sunday afternoon, and let their pew in the 
church be occupied, if occupied at all, only by 
the mother and the children. The very look of 
this, brethren, is bad enough ; but the effect of it 
on the family is far worse. 

Do any of us say, we are always in God's 
house, when it is opened for religious service, — 
we and our offspring? So far as this is true, 
it is creditable to us : we could not do a better 
thing ; we thereby perform a duty we owe at 
once to ourselves, to our families, to the parish 
of which we are members, to the community at 
large, and to God. Were we to neglect it, we 
ought, as it seems to me, to hang our heads 
in shame. But, my friends, with what disposi- 
tions do we go to church ? Do we always keep 
awake there ? Do we carry to the sanctuary minds 
and hearts in harmony with the spirit of the 
place ? Do we show, by our demeanor in the tem- 
ple of the Most High, that we take an interest 
in its holy exercises, and that we are truly anx- 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 141 

ious to derive spiritual nourishment to our own 
souls ? These are pertinent questions ; for chil- 
dren are sharp-sighted and apt imitators ; and 
generally they will estimate the value of public 
worship, not only by our frequency of attendance, 
but by the signs of interest we ourselves manifest 
in the services. And here is the place to say, 
that one of the lamentable tendencies of the 
present age is to think too much of the sermon, 
and too little of the devotions. Parents in the 
morning ask, Who is to preach to-day? and in 
the evening exclaim, We have had a splendid 
discourse ; or, 'Twas but a miserable homily. Not 
a word do they say, not a thought do they seem 
to entertain, about holding communion with Grod, 
which, after all, is the chief purpose of assem- 
bling on the Lord's day. And as with the parents, 
so with the children. They catch the same spirit ; 
and, instead of going regularly to their accus- 
tomed place of meeting to worship in sincerity 
and in truth, they soon learn to stay at home ; 
or they become rovers, hunting for the hall or 
church where some star preacher is to hold forth, 
especially if he has been advertised in the news- 
papers as one who is to speak on some interesting 
or novel subject. 

Do any of us say, we see to it that our chil- 
dren attend regularly the Sunday school ? So 
far, so good. But with what sentiments do we 
regard this institution ? How much do we know 



142 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

of it ? Is it often that we inquire about it ? Do 
we frequently visit it ? or when our little son 
or daughter returns from it with a full heart, 
glowing countenance, and impatient tongue, and 
begins to tell us of some instructive and affecting 
exercise which took place there, — which most 
engages our attention, the account which the child 
gives, or the frivolous book that happens to be 
in our hand? Ah, my erring brethren! happy 
for our offspring that there are such institutions 
as Sunday schools ! but we are preventing half 
their blessed effects by our manifest preference 
for something of less importance. 

Do any of us say, that we are continually cau- 
tioning our children against too strong an attach- 
ment to the passing objects of time and sense ; 
that we tell them to set their supreme affections 
on things above ; that we teach them that virtue 
and piety are vastly superior to the artificial dis- 
tinctions of wealth, fashion, office, pleasure, and 
outward display ; and that we always advise them 
to respect and love most, and to select for their 
associates and friends, those who stand highest 
in point of moral and religious excellence ? Well, 
in all this we do right. But, my friends, how do 
we practise in regard to these particulars ? The 
objects of time and sense, — how is it with them ? 
What do our children see to be uppermost in our 
minds, — truth and virtue and heaven, or money 
and every earthly thing by which our vanity can 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 143 

be gratified, and our appetites sated ? What is the 
great, absorbing topic of conversation in our fami- 
lies, from morning to evening? Is it, where- 
withal we shall enlighten the mind, improve the 
heart, ennoble and adorn the character, that 
so we may open within ourselves never-failing 
sources of true dignity and happiness ? or is it, 
wherewithal we shall eat and drink, and add to 
our treasures, and furnish our houses in richer 
style, and outdo our neighbors in dress and 
equipage, and move conspicuously in the highest 
walks of society ? And in respect to the good 
counsels given to children, as to whom they should 
most respect and choose for their associates, what 
strange delusion many parents seem to be under 
in this regard ! Why, my friends, to-morrow, 
some personage, very rich, high in office, and 
accustomed to shine in what the gay world calls 
the first circles, but one of very questionable 
morals, of small intelligence except as a judge 
of etiquette and wines, and of no pretensions to 
religious faith or feeling, is to dine with us, let 
me suppose. Well, it is considered by us as a 
great event, and it will be talked of as such in 
our family till the hour of the appointment ar- 
rives. And then the toil of preparation, then 
the deferential greetings, then the profoundly 
respectful attentions ; then the emphatic assur- 
ances of sincerest regard, and so forth. Now, 
our children have eyes and ears ; they have 



144 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

minds, too, and can draw an inference. But take 
the counterpart to the scene. Next day, an indi- 
vidual of another sort is to visit us. His intel- 
lect, his heart, his morals, his religion, his whole 
character, are such as do honor to human nature. 
Than he, there is not in the city a man intrinsi- 
cally better. We know him to be a sincere wor- 
shipper of God, a generous lover of mankind, a 
true disciple of Christ. But he happens not to 
rank among the wealthy ; he lives in a small 
house, holds no conspicuous office, makes little 
show, and is seldom seen in what is called fash- 
ionable, but which often really is vulgar society. 
This good man enters our dwelling at the hour 
appointed. The inmates had scarcely bestowed 
a thought on his coming. All seems very much 
in the family as if no one were with them but 
their own members. Though entertaining one of 
the purest and noblest of men, they give no signs 
of special effort; indeed, one might say, they 
are hardly respectful ; for their guest is not the 
world's talk, but only a worthy man. Now, as I 
said before, children have eyes and ears ; and they 
have a certain faculty, also, by which from simple 
premises they can reason out a conclusion. What, 
then, let me ask, avails all a parent's verbal teach- 
ing about the importance of preferring moral to 
worldly distinctions, while he thus allows his chil- 
dren to see his example giving the lie to his pre- 
cepts ? If we, fathers and mothers, do, in daily 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 145 

practice, honor those who are distinguished only 
because they chance to be rich, and in office, and 
in the first class of showy society, while, at the 
same time, we slight, for their poverty and obscure 
position, the really intelligent, the truly moral, 
and the sincerely religious, why, then, we must 
not marvel if our children grow up with the like 
preferences ; if they, too, choose for their com- 
panions the outwardly prosperous rather than 
the inwardly virtuous, and strive more for the 
artificial distinctions of this fleeting world than 
for the genuine excellences which alone God ap- 
proves, which alone gain the respect of truly wise 
and good men, and which alone can qualify one 
for the happiness of heaven. 

But I need not pursue the subject further. 
You have received, from the instances already 
cited, the leading idea it was chiefly my desire to 
convey : it is, that, in morals and religion, exam- 
pie does the most essential part of education. 
This, by itself, when correct, will work wonders. 
Without it, all else will be ineffectual. The one 
great impression I am mainly anxious to have 
every parent bear away with him is, that he who 
would make his children truly good must be good 
himself. We cannot explain subjects with much 
practical effect, on which we have not ourselves 
thought ; we cannot give efficacy to truths which 
we do not ourselves feel ; we cannot inspire 
hopes by which our own minds are not animated ; 
10 



146 THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

and it will be in vain for us to inculcate motives 
from which we do not act. In other language, 
wo are educating our children, not so much by 
particular lessons, indispensable as these are, as 
by our daily conversation ; by the feelings and 
sentiments which we habitually express ; by the 
motives from which we act, or appear to act ; or, 
in fine, by the whole power of our example, 
the whole influence of our character. "Be ye, 
then, examples of the believers, in word, in con- 
versation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 
And God grant us the blessedness of seeing our 
dear children growing up in the virtues and graces 
of the holy gospel ! 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 147 



VI. 

COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 
Titus ii. 6: "Young men likewise exhort." 

In attempting, this morning, to obey the injunc- 
tion of the apostle in the text, by means of a few 
words of advice addressed to that interesting 
portion of my audience who have now reached 
the period of life when they are taking, or are 
about to take, their first steps in the highway of 
the world, by themselves and for themselves, 
I feel myself embarrassed by the multiplicity of 
topics which crowd upon attention, connected 
with the very brief space of time to which my 
remarks must be restricted. But no matter 
for this, comparatively, if — the good-will of my 
hearers concurring — I can, in any way, throw 
out a few hints, dictated by sincere regard, that 
shall be of use to the young men here present. 

You have now, my friends, arrived at the most 
important period of your life. This is true as 
regards yourselves. You are about to assume 
responsible stations ; to act from your own judg- 



148 COUNSELS FOE YOUNG MEN. 

ment, and upon your own principles ; to sow 
what you shall, by and by, reap ; to take your 
destinies, as it were, into your own hands. Can 
any thought be more serious ? any, more affect- 
ing ? The same is true, also, as respects others. 
You are soon to succeed your fathers in the high 
pursuits of society. Its burdens you must bear ; 
its interests will be committed to you. The 
aspects of the present will take much of its 
coloring from you ; and around you the hopes 
of the future cluster. Aged patriotism, philan- 
thropy, and piety turn their dim eyes to you, 
and behold, as in a mirror, the promise of coming 
years. Your hands will soon be upon the golden 
cords of society, which are its bonds of conserva- 
tion ; and, in a little while, it will depend upon 
you, whether they shall be weakened or made 
stronger, whether they shall be preserved or torn 
asunder. Can such considerations fail to awaken 
in you the serious and earnest inquiry, " How 
can we acquit ourselves worthily ? " 

In answer to a question of this kind, which it 
is becoming in every young person to ask, per- 
mit me to remark in the outset, and with empha- 
sis, that there is one way, and only one way, in 
which you can either fulfil aright your obliga- 
tions to society, or secure truly your own welfare ; 
and that is, by means of a thoroughly good char- 
acter. This no one will deny, and therefore I 
need not stop to prove it. But I may be told that 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 149 

those I am speaking to have come forth from 
their homes and schools with characters already 
well formed, already educated for every duty of 
life. Now, no one will concede more on this 
score than myself. Ready and happy I am to 
grant that the class of young men whom I 
address are behind no others of their age and 
opportunities, in regard to the good intellectual 
and moral habits they have acquired. But this 
question, nevertheless, I must be allowed to ask, 
— Is their education now to stop ? Is their char- 
acter to-day all that it is expected or desired to 
be hereafter ? Whatever others may suppose, 
do not you, my young friends, indulge any such 
idea for a moment. By no means deem your 
education finished. Presume not to measure 
your future intellectual, moral, and religious 
character by the standard at which you have 
now arrived, high as this may be. Bear it in 
mind, all along, that both your own highest good 
and the well-being of the community depend on 
your making yet further and ever perpetual prog- 
ress. Dream not that God put you on this earth 
merely to get a living ; and that, when you have 
been educated sufficiently for this, you have done 
all, in the way of preparation, that your true in- 
terests and those of society require. No : take 
higher, wider, and further-reaching views. See 
and feel that the great object you should have 
always before you is a progressive education, a 



150 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

continually improving character. This is my first 
counsel ; and there can be none of greater moment. 
Let me now proceed to say a few words, as to 
what must be done, on your part, in order to se- 
cure the constant advancement to which I have 
referred, and so to be enabled to fulfil, for your- 
selves and for the world, the ends for which you 
are created. 

1. In the first place, enter upon the active 
scenes of life before you with worthy aims. From 
the very outset, be it your desire and purpose to 
act for the true ends of human existence. Never 
indulge the thought, for an instant, that your 
only or your chief concern should be to amass 
vast wealth. Remember that you have a mind, 
which is of infinitely greater value than all out- 
ward things ; and see to it that the due cultiva- 
tion of your faculties be the object of your highest 
ambition. Do nothing, submit to nothing, that 
will tend to lessen or obscure in your sight this 
great end of your being. In all the toils and all 
the trials of your earthly career, never forget this 
most important of human concerns. Fix your 
eye, from the beginning, upon this shining mark ; 
and let the strongest forces of your nature be 
brought to bear in the path that leads directly 
to it. Consider, often, why you are here, what 
you are, whither you are journeying, what is 
your chief duty, and what should be your prime 
object. Take this thought with you into all the 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 151 

scenes of the world. Resolve to act faithfully upon 
it, from this day forward. Cling to it in pros- 
perity and adversity, amid the cheerful sunshine 
and calm of life, and when you are tempest-tost 
under dark clouds and on rough seas. Thus 
regard early and ever the true ends of existence, 
and you will have one of the best securities for 
happiness and for improvement of character. 

2. In the next place, have an eye to circum- 
stances, and seek such as will be favorable to 
your growth in excellence. Character being the 
main thing, why, for any consideration of wealth 
or station, will a young man put himself where 
its purity and progress will be sacrificed ? And 
yet how many overlook this in their choice of a 
pursuit or of a place of residence ! For the sake 
of making money a little faster, they will go 
where there are no books, no churches, no improv- 
ing society. I caution you against this transgres- 
sion of an obvious law of wisdom. I counsel you 
to consider well, when deliberating on the kind of 
business you shall engage in or the spot where 
you shall dwell, what will be likely to be the sort 
of circumstances connected therewith, that will 
affect your intellectual, moral, and religious char- 
acter. This advice, surely, you will not, if you 
reflect a moment, regard as any other than 
the dictate of the soundest good sense. For 
why should one, made in the image of God and 
destined to immortality, hazard the chief end of 



152 COUNSELS FOE YOUNG MEN. 

his being ? — why put in jeopardy his principal 
interests, by selecting, without reference to them, 
his place, his occupations, or his companions ; 
and, through this carelessness, be all his life long, 
perhaps, striving against the stream, struggling 
under the deleterious influence of an unhealthy 
moral atmosphere ? 

3. But, in the third place, it is not enough to 
start in life with a high aim, and under favorable 
circumstances. These alone never made a per- 
fect man. Would you be what you may and 
ought? You must, then, be active, — active, I 
mean, not only about your ordinary business, 
but, so far as you can, in whatever appertains to 
the true interests of a human being. Charac- 
ter — which I am all along regarding as the chief 
concern — is not only expressed by actions : it is 
formed, and made to grow, by them. True, its 
foundation is laid in thought, disposition, pur- 
pose ; but it is built up and established by action. 
Sentiments of virtue die out from the soul, unless 
they gain substance and life by corresponding 
deeds. Hence the lamentable fact, that so many 
of those who come forth glowing with youthful 
ardor for whatever is praiseworthy soon find 
their generous sensibilities deadened ; and they 
become selfish and sordid, and, in the same pro- 
portion, stationary or retrograde in character. No 
better advice can be given, therefore, to young 
men, for their own welfare, — to say nothing of 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 153 

society's need of their services, — than that, as 
soon as they enter upon responsible life, they 
look carefully around them, and inquire, where 
and how they can act, in behalf of the intel- 
lectual, moral, and religious enterprises of the 
times. Let no one, I beseech him, if he means 
to be any thing worthy of his nature and oppor- 
tunities, — let no one content himself with the 
mere routine of his common business : not that 
I would have him neglect this ; but let him so 
arrange his affairs, that he may have frequent 
intervals of leisure, however short, wherein he 
can express in action the high sentiments he has 
learned to cherish for the great moral interests 
of the community. Let him, from the first, be 
among those who stand forth, with true hearts 
and ready hands, to oppose the current of vice ; 
to uphold the integrity and honor of principle ; 
to determine the suffrage of right; to maintain 
truth, morality, and religion in their supremacy ; 
and to help forward every worthy and useful end 
for the good of society and the country. And 
let all young men know and feel, that, just in 
proportion to their fidelity in acting out pure 
and generous sentiments for the common advan- 
tage, they minister to their own strength and 
elevation of principle, and advance their own 
character towards perfection. 

4. But, my young friends, I must be allowed 
to commend to you yet another step. All that I 



154 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

have pointed out you may do, and still your 
character may fall short of the true standard. 
Add, then, let me say, in the fourth place, — add 
to what has already been suggested, strict moral 
and religious self-discipline. Character can stand 
on nothing that is outward. It must be built up 
from within. The complete man, the perfect hu- 
man being, is, can be, made such only upon prin- 
ciple. In respect to nothing have you reason to 
feel greater solicitude than for this ; not for a 
season only, but all along your future career. 
Self-discipline, — moral and religious self-disci- 
pline, — here is the true though secret cause of 
every really noble character that the world has 
produced. Neglect not, I beseech you, — neglect 
not a means of such efficacy, and without which 
all others may avail little. Often retire from the 
turmoil of business and the resorts of pleasure, 
to commune with your own heart. Study the 
principles from which you act, and see if they 
are all right. Ascertain in what respects you 
have erred, that so you may know where to apply 
the correcting hand. Hold converse with the 
pure and good, and thus avail yourselves of the 
benefit of sympathy and counsel.' That you will 
read books, hear lectures, and be constant attend- 
ants at church, I of course take for granted ; but 
this, by itself, will never suffice : you must see to 
it, that you always go to these exercises with 
active minds, disposed and prepared by self-disci- 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 155 

pline to derive the advantage they are fitted, only 
on that condition, to impart. Especially, and 
above all, it is necessary that the spirit of a pure 
and earnest religion bear sway among your facul- 
ties. Early, therefore, consecrate your hearts to 
God, and ever make him the most constant object 
of regard. Ally yourselves to him, to his coun- 
sels and his purposes, and secure the co-operation 
of his will. In the deep life of the spirit, com- 
mune with him, and thus nourish yourselves 
in all goodness. In the affectionate imitation of 
Jesus Christ, commend yourselves to his blessing, 
and so find strength and peace. In the hope and 
prospect of a happy futurity, toil on, rejoicing 
and persevering through good report and evil 
report ; knowing that your witness is in heaven, 
and your record on high. But I must check 
myself. Of the importance of character, and 
of the way in which it is to be advanced, no more 
can be said at present. Yet a few words you 
will allow me to add, as suggestive of motives, 
respecting your position, responsibleness, and in- 
fluence. 

My friends, are you fully aware of these mo- 
tives ? They are such as give you a power for 
good, which no language can adequately describe ; 
and, if your character shall be all I have been 
asking for, what blessings may not present and 
future generations receive through you ! 

Consider the peculiar station you occupy. You 



156 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

stand next to the acting and influential ones now 
upon the stage of busy life ; and many of you are 
treading in the footsteps and supplying the places 
of those who are passing from it. Upon you 
begins to rest already the ark of our freedom ; in 
you dwell the powers that must decide the char- 
acter of the coming age. To go no further than 
this city, what interests are soon to come into 
your hands, — the government, the schools, the 
churches, all our cherished institutions ! How 
do you purpose to use these vast instrumentali- 
ties of good ? Worthily ? " Yes ! " you are all, 
I doubt not, ready to exclaim. God grant that 
you may ! But remember, I beseech you, your 
peculiar position, and the responsibilities con- 
nected with it. 

Consider next the times you live in. Never, 
in the annals of the world, was there a period so 
interesting, in many respects, as this. I need not, 
or, were it otherwise, the passing hour would 
not permit me to describe it. But I wish you to 
study the aspect of the age, the aspect of affairs, 
and then act wisely and diligently in reference to 
it. It is for you to lay hold upon the great prin- 
ciples for good awakened in these latter days by 
Christianity, and urge them forward. In order 
to discharge your obligations aright, you must 
examine the signs of the times ; must know how 
to preserve what is good, and to correct what is 
bad, in prevailing sentiments and principles. You 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 157 

must be alive and vigilant and active ; feeling, 
at every step, how much will depend upon your 
character and efforts. 

Consider, again, what facilities and opportuni- 
ties you have for benefiting yourselves and the 
community. The means of education are extend- 
ing, and its standard rising. The press is active 
as it never was before, and science is revealing 
new wonders every day. The instrumentalities 
for conveying intelligence and persons through- 
out the land are increasing with astonishing 
rapidity. Then, too, our republican principles 
and institutions, — what could be better than 
these for the prospects of young men ? Again, 
the priceless light of the gospel, with all its privi- 
leges and all its blessings, is beaming full around 
you. And now let me ask, Have you any excuse, 
if you do not work, as others have never done, 
for yourselves and for mankind ? Will you not 
faithfully perform the duties which such means 
and opportunities imply ? May not our schools, 
our churches, our municipal affairs, our general 
politics, all the interests of learning, of philan- 
thropy, of freedom, and religion, look to you for 
that sort of character and effort which will cause 
them to be not only preserved, but improved, for 
the coming generations ? 

Consider, yet further, the place where you live, 
and the immense territory over which the princi- 
ples and sentiments, as well as the merchandise, 



158 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

that are to go out hence, must spread. What a 
centre is not this metropolis destined, under the 
smiles of Divine Providence, to become, — what 
a centre, whence wholesome influences may be 
diffused far and wide ! How important that these 
influences be of the best sort! If this city of 
ours is to be one of the great radiating points 
of intelligence to the whole land, as it has been 
and is to New England, it is of the utmost im- 
portance that it should be eminently the seat of 
all moral and religious excellences. The light 
of the body politic is the eye ; and, if that eye be 
healthy, the whole body shall be full of light. 
And for this we must look mainly to our young 
men. Will they prove themselves adequate to 
the exigency ? I call on them to understand 
their responsible position, and to conduct them- 
selves in it worthily. I adjure them not to be 
wholly absorbed by the zeal of commercial enter- 
prise, which so kindles and pushes forward this 
great and growing community ; but to devote 
themselves, in due measure, to those far higher 
interests of intellect, morals, and religion, in 
respect to which such multitudes, all over the 
land, will look here for a pattern and a motive. 
Just glance to the North, to the South, and to 
the far West bounded by the Pacific, and con- 
sider that into all those regions your goods will 
go ; and, what is of vastly greater moment, 
that in all those regions your principles and 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 159 

characters will be known. Reflect, too, in this 
relation, on what the country is growing to be. 
Is it to have a population of fifty millions, before 
many of us, now living, shall die ? Is this popu- 
lation to swell, within the compass of a century, 
to two hundred millions ? and, in less than two 
centuries, is it to equal half the present popula- 
tion of the globe ? And is the character of this 
mighty mass of human beings to be fixed, in no 
small degree, by those who are now living and 
acting? And can you count it of little conse- 
quence what sentiments you imbibe, what habits 
you form, and what influences you throw around 
you ? Nor is this all. Think, moreover, of the 
amazing resources of your country, and of the in- 
fluence she must exert in coming centuries over 
the destinies of the world. And reflect that 
you are now giving character to that mighty 
influence. For one, I tremble in view of the 
responsibilities which rest upon the young men 
of this land, and especially upon those who live 
in large cities, out of which must go a controlling 
power. God has attached to their existence an 
importance incomparably surpassing that of any 
equal portion of the human family. He is giving 
them the means pre-eminently to bless the world. 
And the alternative, also, of cursing it, is one, 
from the result and consequences of which, if 
they choose it, they cannot escape. Oh ! if you 
will enter upon a manhood of mere fashion, of 



160; COUNSELS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

vice, of worldliness, of low ambition ; if you will 
pass through life without God, and die without 
virtue, — better that your abode were in some 
obscure island of the sea, or some region of the 
north, locked in eternal winter, or some desert 
scorched by a vertical sun, than in this garden of 
creation ! 

But I would hope, I will hope, better things. 
I will hope that you may imbibe and cherish a 
right spirit, and allow yourselves to be habitually 
swayed by pure, elevated, and noble principles. 
I will hope that you may form worthy characters ; 
that you may possess and exhibit the grand 
features of Christian piety and virtue in such 
pre-eminence as to impress them deeply on those 
around, and those who shall come after you. I 
will hope that you may aspire to the dignity of 
leading lives, while on earth, that all the wise 
and good will delight to refer to as examples ; and 
of leaving, when you ascend to heaven, an in- 
fluence which shall give light and purity and 
salvation to future millions. No age, no spot 
in creation, has presented to it greater advan- 
tages for Christian effort and success ; and the 
youth of mind or of wealth who shall catch 
the spirit of a Howard or a Washington may 
now fix an image upon the world as fair and in- 
delible as theirs. 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 161 



VII. 

COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

Titus ii. 4: "Also, teach the young women." 

It must be obvious, my hearers, to reflecting per- 
sons, that a preacher may add to his usefulness, 
by occasionally addressing his instructions to 
particular classes of persons ; and this, as you 
are aware, has not unfrequently been my practice. 
While most of my sermons have been designed 
for those who are in mature and active life, 
irrespectively of their age, their sex, or their 
peculiar relations and duties, I have, once and 
again, spoken especially to children, also to par- 
ents, then to the aged, and likewise to the youth 
of the congregation generally, without regard to 
the difference of male and female. This last 
distinction, however, I ventured to observe, Sun- 
day before last, as some of you may remember, 
in a discourse devoted entirely to what seemed 
to me the interests of young men ; and the same 
thing I propose to do on the present occasion, 
inviting the other sex of a like age, who are 
11 



162 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

accustomed to worship here, to receive from me 
some hints, kindly suggested, respecting the duties 
that devolve upon them. Nor can I, perhaps, 
begin with any remark deserving greater heed 
than this one, important certainly as it is trite ; 
namely, that, if there be a single part of life 
more momentous than another, it is doubtless 
the season of youth ; the time, I mean, when the 
dependence of childhood is over, and the burdens 
of mature years have not yet been assumed. It 
is a period when the mind is called, if ever, to 
put itself into a posture for serious meditation ; 
when it should look about it, and send its thoughts 
forward, and settle for itself some determinate 
rules of conduct. Up to this point, my young 
friends, you have been led by the wisdom and 
affection of others : from this point you will, 
most of you, have to decide for yourselves the 
great questions of duty. The period has arrived, 
or is fast approaching, when, in all essential re- 
spects, you must assume, as free agents, an undi- 
vided responsibility for the feelings you cherish, 
the deeds you perform, the principles you adopt, 
and the influence you exert. Of course, it is a 
time that should seem to you one of great inter- 
est ; from a right use of it will flow consequences 
of the utmost value ; and it is sadly misap- 
plied by those who give it all up to thoughtless 
gayety. 

And now, what is the counsel of wisdom to 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 163 

you in this most important period of your life ? 
Her voice addresses you in mild but earnest 
tones, telling you that every thing depends on 
right principles and a good character. Wisdom 
points to the relations you now sustain, and the 
duties they involve, and says that in these you 
cannot be either useful or happy, without pure 
sentiments and virtuous habits. She bids you 
look forward to the new stations you must fill, 
and to know and feel betimes how ample should 
be your preparation of mind and heart for the 
proper discharge of the obligations which will 
devolve upon you there. Presuming that you 
are not indisposed to listen, for a little while 
at least, to some such counsels of practical wis- 
dom as these, I crave the privilege of proceeding 
to say a few words in accordance with her whole- 
some suggestions respecting your present and 
future spheres of duty ; hoping thereby to fur- 
nish some hints that may not be altogether with- 
out advantage to that interesting class of my 
hearers whom it affords me so much pleasure 
particularly to address. 

1. I observe then, first, that, in the common 
course of things, the duties given to a young 
woman to perform are the blessed ones of a good 
daughter. A good daughter ! There are, indeed, 
other ministries more conspicuous than hers ; 
but none in which a better spirit is required, and 
none to which the heart's warm requitals are 



164 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

more joyfully made. A good daughter ! What 
a treasure is not she to her father ! She is the 
cheering light of his dwelling. The idea of her 
is indissolubly connected with that of his happy 
home. The grace and vivacity and purity and 
tenderness of her sex have their place among 
the influences that elevate, while they gladden, 
his spirit. What a charm for him in the melody 
of her voice ! and is there any gloom that yields 
not to the brightness of her smile ? Is there 
another outward possession that he would not 
consent to part with sooner than with her ? Still 
more dear, if possible, is a good daughter to a 
mother's heart. To her, what a ready sharer 
of domestic cares ! what an effective lightener of 
household burdens ! what an ever-present joy and 
triumph to maternal affection ! Indeed, is there 
any price that could buy of her such a blessing ? 
To both parents, a daughter really deserving the 
epithet, good, is a treasure unutterably precious. 
She is the delight of their eyes ; the object on 
which their thoughts oftenest centre and blend ; 
the pride and ornament of their hospitality ; the 
gentle nurse of their sicknesses ; the constant 
agent in those unnumbered acts of kindness, 
which they chiefly care to have rendered because 
unpretending but all-expressive proofs of love. 
Oh, how little those daughters know of the 
power which God has given them, who do not, 
every time that a parent's countenance turns to 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 165 

them, awaken feelings of rapture in a parent's 
heart! Whether such be the privilege and joy 
of your father and mother, my young friends, 
depends upon you, — depends upon your temper 
and conduct. For their sakes, if for no other 
reason, be anxious, I beseech you, to cultivate 
the sentiments, and form the habits, of virtue and 
piety. If you have any ambition, let it be to 
requite those to whom you owe so much, and 
whose happiness depends so greatly on you, by 
all the genuine exhibitions of a true filial love 
and devotion. 

2. I remark, next, that to a young woman 
ordinarily belong the duties of a good sister ; 
and how much do not these imply ! In the daily 
intimacies of a well-regulated household, what a 
blessing is a good sister's influence ! Who can 
measure it ? How much is constantly within 
such a one's power, of whatever helps to make 
home a pleasant and improving place to those 
who are objects, with her, of the same parental 
care ! Has she younger sisters ? With what a 
sense of security is confidence reposed in her, 
and with what assurance that it will be honestly 
and considerately given is her counsel sought! 
Of the happiness which they enjoy, of the docil- 
ity which they manifest, of the improvement 
which they make, how much depends upon her 
affectionate and faithful assiduities ! Has she 
brothers? What dependence is not theirs on 



166 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

her for sympathy, encouragement, and warning ! 
Many are the young men, to whom, when thrown 
into circumstances of temptation, the thought of 
a sister's purity and love has been as a constant, 
holy presence, deterring from every vicious act. 
None but they who have experienced it can tell 
how large and cherished a place such a guardian 
angel's affection can hold in grateful memory, 
with which a brother, who has been blessed with 
the benefits of this relation, looks back to the 
time of his childhood. Let not any of my young 
hearers who are sisters dream that they can be 
acting with a light responsibility. A serious 
charge has been given them, and serious consid- 
eration becomes them as to how they fulfil the 
trust. Never forget, that, in the relation you 
sustain, you may contribute much, not only to 
the immediate gratification of those you most 
dearly love, but also to their improvement and 
tlieir future happiness. If for no other reason, 
at least for the sake of brothers and sisters, be 
good ; and let them be won, by your example, 
to gentleness and truth and piety, to all those 
excellences which ennoble and adorn the char- 
acter. 

3. I pass now to the duties of young women 
in society, and let my first words be those of an 
indulgent allowance. Think not, my friends, 
that, because my station is in the pulpit, I am 
going to proscribe the innocent enjoyments of 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 167 

social intercourse, or to say aught against those 
reasonable modes of rendering yourselves inter- 
esting which persons of your age and sex are so 
naturally inclined to adopt. But surely I may 
remind you, — and it affords me satisfaction to 
believe you will concur in the propriety of the 
remark, — that no young woman who goes into 
society merely to gratify a love of pleasure, or, 
what is worse, merely to indulge feelings of vanity 
in the display of superior personal attractions, is 
acting either wisely or dutifully. Self-improve- 
ment and a regard to others' good are higher 
motives, and by these you ought to be influenced. 
If your elders are bound to be rational and con- 
siderate and useful, so are you, at least to a 
certain extent. If they are able to go into society 
with the purpose and power to purify and elevate, 
while they grace it, so, in your measure, are you 
able ; and, believe me, this your measure is not 
small. For the very attractions which naturally 
belong to young women, and the sense of which, 
if you are light-minded and vain, may bewilder 
and lead you into hurtful follies, give you, when 
discreet and sensible, a vast power to improve 
the tastes and sentiments and characters of the 
other sex. Here is a trust of serious magnitude. 
The moral influence which, by means of the 
peculiar interest it excites, the female mind, duly 
cultivated and rightly employed, may exert in a 
community over those especially whose senti- 



168 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

ments and habits are forming, is altogether be- 
yond estimation. Be aware, I beseech you, of 
this ; and see to it, that the bearing of your whole 
conduct, in every social circle, be decidedly on 
the side of what is pure and true and correct. 
Never utter a deceptive word, nor do a wrong 
deed, for the sake of another's favor, though 
thereby you might gain a fortune or a throne. 
Do not, on any consideration, countenance and 
encourage either the conduct or the language of 
those whose company you keep, when that con- 
duct or that language seems to you to border, 
in the least, on what is immoral. Smile approv- 
ingly on no attempts at wit or humor, by which 
modesty can be made to blush, or the humblest 
character, whether present or absent, is caused 
to appear in a false and unfavorable light. Frown 
on all insincere protestations, on all flatteries 
addressed to yourselves, and on all malignant 
surmises or slanders uttered against others. Let 
pertness and foppery, and the whole tribe of 
kindred follies, so intrusive and annoying in some 
circles of young people at the present day, be 
driven, by your prompt and marked disapproba- 
tion, into the obscurity from which they should 
never have presumed to emerge. Allow neither 
irreligious scepticism nor canting hypocrisy, 
neither coarse sentiments under the guise of 
polished manners, nor treacherous principles 
veiled in the language of honorable professions, 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 169 

nor vicious propensities associated with the show 
of wealth and fashion, be thought by any one 
to gain from you either a look or a word that 
does not imply a rebuke ; while you will permit, 
always and everywhere, pure tastes, right feel- 
ings, noble thoughts, and all that appertains to 
elevated morals and to a simple and earnest piety, 
to flourish under the smiles of your favor, like 
the flowers under the blessed sunshine of spring. 

So much, my friends, in respect to the duties 
of young ^oinen, as daughters, sisters, and mem- 
bers of society. Even for these duties, to say 
nothing of others, whether at present incumbent 
or hereafter to devolve on them, what trait of a 
truly good character is not needful? Can you 
name a single habit of mind, of heart, or of con- 
duct, sanctioned and required by virtue and reli- 
gion, that will not find scope in these relations ? 
Were you, then, always to remain as young as 
you now are, and never to enter other and wider 
spheres of exertion and influence, ample reason 
there would be for all possible efforts on your 
part to possess and exhibit every quality of 
character which the wise and good regard and 
recommend as thoroughly excellent. 

What, then, must not be your sense of respon- 
sibleness, and what your eager desire and strenu- 
ous endeavor to improve yourselves more and 
more, when you consider, that, with added years, 
you will incur new obligations ; that soon you 



170 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

will find yourselves in other stations, where no 
measure of intelligence, no strength of principle, 
no virtue, no piety, will be more than adequate 
to secure your own highest welfare, or to further 
the best interests of the community ! These 
new obligations, these other stations, I need not 
specify. To know them, you need only to look 
among your elders. Such a survey will show 
you how various and how far extended should be 
a woman's acquirements. You will find, I think, 
that more is requisite on her part than many 
who have given no thought to the subject sup- 
pose. True, women are not to be qualified to be 
sailors or soldiers or lawyers or statesmen ; 
they are not to be trained for the toil of the 
camp, the bar, the senate chamber, or the pulpit ; 
yet, certainly, God and nature destined them to 
spheres that demand very various and extensive 
culture. As to general knowledge, it should, at 
least, be such as shall acquaint them with the 
nature and uses both of the body and the mind ; 
the scope and force of all their powers, alike 
physical, intellectual, and moral ; the essential 
laws of the creation around them ; general his- 
tory and Christianity ; and the best works of 
morality, religion, sentiment, and taste. Their 
aim, from first to last, most surely should be to 
improve all their faculties as much as possible ; 
to ascertain clearly the way of their duty, and to 
be enabled to walk in it in the most acceptable, 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 171 

faithful, and becoming manner ; to enlarge their 
usefulness to the utmost extent of their ability ; 
to give a virtuous direction to all the influences 
which God has imparted to them ; to fill up their 
leisure time with what is not only pleasurable, 
but profitable ; to dignify and adorn the station 
in which they are placed ; to provide themselves 
with elevated principles and sure consolations, 
such as shall sustain them in adversity and in 
the hour of death, and to enable them so to live 
on earth, that they may live happily in heaven. 

So much, at least, it should be the wish and 
the endeavor of every young woman to attain. 
Such cannot but be her wish and endeavor, if 
she has been a careful observer of what her elders 
have found indispensable to their highest suc- 
cess, and if, at the same time, she is true to 
her nature, her destination, her fellow-beings, 
and her God. And now, my young friends, will 
you not be disposed to take good heed that 
none of us, who are in advance of you in years, 
shall have occasion to fear for you ? When so 
much depends on your own exertions, as regards 
both the present and future, will you not see to it, 
that your thoughts take a right direction, your 
feelings become interested in whatever is true and 
useful, and your efforts be engaged in all that 
ministers to self-improvement, and promises bene- 
fit to society? Can you, when so much is at 
stake, pass these your golden days in indolence 



172 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

or frivolous amusements? Shall your precious 
hours be given to the follies and vanities of arti- 
ficial life ? Will you allow heartless fashion or 
no less heartless literature to corrupt the best 
feelings and destroy the noblest energies of your 
soul ? Let your good sense, your conscience, 
your pride, either or all of these answer, and 
sure I am the decision will be right. But will 
every one abide by it, amidst the temptations 
of the world ? Alas ! what do experience and 
observation teach ? Good sense, conscience, 
pride, may, for they every day do, prompt right 
decisions ; but how often they fail to carry per- 
sons on, without halting or turning aside through 
the whole length of the way of duty ! What is 
requisite beside ? My young friends, I pray you 
withdraw not attention from me, when I say, in 
reply, it is religion. Believe me, this is the one 
thing needful. Without this, a young woman, 
whatever else she may have, is not well furnished 
for any one of the duties, nor any one of the sta- 
tions, which I have named, or to which I have 
alluded. Take from her soul the element of a 
pure, living piety, and at once my idea of her as 
a good daughter, of a good sister, of a good occu- 
pier of any of the spheres assigned to her in life, 
becomes incomplete. Chief, therefore, among the 
counsels I would give to every young woman, 
is, that she fix early and deeply in her heart 
the sentiments and principles of a rational and 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 173 

earnest piety. Truly, in urging this topic upon 
the female sex, I ought to have, on your part, a 
peculiar readiness of sympathy; and this for 
many reasons. 

In speaking of religion, I of course mean 
Christianity ; and what has not this blessed dis- 
pensation done for women ? Think of Jesus 
himself, whom we commemorate to-day, — think 
of him in relation to women. At the very begin- 
ning of his ministry, he showed himself inter- 
ested in their welfare ; and to the hour of his 
death he continued that work of redemption 
to which they owe their present elevated state in 
society. His efforts on their behalf the women 
of Judea at once appreciated. His earliest friend 
was a woman ; his only steadfast friends through 
his ministry were women ; the last at the cross, 
and the first at the sepulchre, was a woman. 
Here, my female auditors, is an example for you. 
Think what it was, at that perilous period, to 
avow confidence in Jesus. And will you, in these 
easy times, be ashamed of Christ? Trace now 
the workings of the gospel from that age to the 
present, and see how much you are indebted to 
it. This it is that has raised your sex from 
degradation and servitude, and placed you by 
the side of man, his equal and friend. This it is 
which has opened to woman treasures of happi- 
ness, from which, in all ages and climes, she had 
been debarred on earth, and joys celestial to 



174 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

which she had never dared to lift an eye of hope. 
Can you think of this, and not open your mind 
and heart, even now in your youthful years, to 
its blessed influences ? Consider, moreover, how 
your distinctive characteristics, how the quick 
sensibilities, the strong affections, the pure sym- 
pathies, of your nature, peculiarly fit you for this 
religion. It offers to your tender regards a Being 
infinitely worthy of your love ; to your sense of 
dependence, an Almighty Protector ; to your con- 
fidence, an unchangeable Friend. It promises 
to satisfy your every pure and generous aspira- 
tion ; it delights, if I may so speak, to conduct 
just such a nature as yours towards perfection. 
Again, excluded as you must be from the more 
active and engrossing pursuits of the world, and 
obliged to be much by yourself, or accompanied 
only by the members of your household, what 
opportunities and facilities will you not have for 
cultivating and cherishing the spirit which Chris- 
tianity breathes ! And besides, where, except in 
this religion, can you, during many of the lonely 
hours that must fall to your lot, find the means 
of satisfying the cravings of your intellect and 
heart, unless in those truths which Jesus Christ 
has revealed to the hungering and thirsting soul, 
— truths that quicken, while they chasten, the 
fancy ; which regulate the enthusiasm they have 
kindled, and guide the energies they have called 
forth ; truths that offer to woman a relief from 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 175 

the evils incident to solitude, and a solace in the 
midst of her peculiar trials, — the truths of a 
spiritual religion. Still further, an argument 
to the same effect may be drawn from the con- 
sideration, that if through female encourage- 
ment and example the spirit of the age is to be 
purified of its folly, if it is to be elevated and 
adorned by Christian excellence, women must 
be sincerely and practically religious. Their re- 
gard for the gospel must be neither insincere 
nor superficial ; their reverence and love for it 
must be seated deeply in the heart, and appear 
conspicuously in the daily life. Let it be known 
that they are the advocates of a piety which they 
cherish in their souls, and that they are opposed 
in principle and habit to every practice incon- 
sistent with the morality of the gospel, and, 
however great a change should be made in the 
sentiments or usages of the other sex, it will be 
made. For, when the alternative is amendment 
or exclusion from their favor, hesitation will not 
long precede choice. 

One other thought, my young friends, you 
must allow me to suggest, though to persons 
of your age it may seem a gloomy one. It is, 
that healthy, joyous, and hopeful as you may 
now be, there are before you in life, as there 
have been in the path of your elders, trials and 
sorrows, which you will need the aid of religion 
to enable you to bear. Surely, you must have 



176 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

learned enough to know that you cannot reasona- 
bly expect to be exempt from the changes that 
fall to the lot of all ; let your morning sun shine 
as radiantly as it will, it must often be dark- 
ened ; hearts will be divided, and hopes will be 
destroyed. There are sorrows which follow 
human passion ; there are misfortunes sent by the 
act of God : you will sit by the side of the sick ; 
you will mourn over the remains of the dead ; you 
will find yourselves, at length, on the brink of 
your own grave. Whither shall you turn for 
support and encouragement ? Religion, religion, 
must be your refuge then. There is no other 
adequate prop and solace in the last hour. Think 
not that I say this merely in the way of my 
profession. I would speak to you as a familiar 
friend, and the truth of my remarks is attested 
by the dying words of thousands in every Chris- 
tian age. Be it, then, your care to take with you 
into life the principles of religion. Do not pro- 
ceed another step in your journey on earth, with- 
out the possession of that which our Saviour 
told Martha was the one thing needful, and which 
has been proved to be so by the experience of 
your sex, in every age, since he left the world. 

By the experience of her, let me add, whose 
lamented death occasioned the special prayer 
offered this morning for bereaved ones here pres- 
ent. That excellent woman, the faithful wife 
and devoted mother, as well as good daughter, 



COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 177 

was, not many years ago, among the young 
women of this society, one of the most interest- 
ing and happy ; seeming to have, as much as any 
other, the promise of a long life. But a fatal 
disease arrested her in an adjoining city ; and, 
recently, weeping parents and children, brothers 
and sisters, followed her remains to the grave. 
"What sustained her in her lingering illness ? 
Religion. What reconciled her to the event of 
death which for months she saw steadily ap- 
proaching ? Religion. What enabled her to find 
such support and solace in prayer ? Religion. 
What made her feel, when her own strength 
became weakness and no human arm was ade- 
quate to her needs, that there was One, even the 
Father of her spirit, in whose powerful presence 
and gracious love she could confide ? Religion. 
What, at the closing scene, caused heaven to 
open so brightly to her mind, that willingly she 
could resign whatever, and it was much, that 
had made her happy on earth, and joyfully pass 
on, at the call of her God, to meet the blessed 
realities of the spiritual world ? Religion. And, 
my young friends, be not incredulous when I 
say that what supported and cheered her in 
sickness and death, you will want, sooner or 
later, to support and cheer you. God, of his 
infinite mercy, grant that no one to whom I now 
speak may find herself destitute of religion at 
that time of most urgent need, whenever it shall 
12 



178 COUNSELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN. 

come ! Will this prayer be answered ? It de- 
pends greatly on yourselves. As you sow, you 
will reap. No one can reasonably look for a peace- 
ful and happy close of life, who has not begun 
early to cultivate the principles of virtue and 
piety ; while all who have these in vigorous 
growth may feel sure of blessedness at last. 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 179 



VIII. 

COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

1 Tim. v. 2: "Entreat the elder women as mothers." 

It seems to me well, at times, to address the 
different classes of a community separately. Not 
long ago, I invited young men to listen to such 
counsels as it seemed to me they would find 
it useful to heed. Sunday before last, I used the 
freedom of this place in pointing out to the other 
sex, of the same age, some of their dangers and 
duties. This morning, I beg the privilege of 
speaking to such of their elders as sustain the 
maternal relation. Very likely you will find 
in my remarks little that is new; indeed, can 
what is new, at the same time true and pertinent, 
be said by any one on this subject ? But I hope, 
nevertheless, to offer some suggestions that will 
be useful. 

Let me begin with observing, that they who 
have carefully looked into the world with a view 
to ascertain how the human character is formed, 
generally agree, that the father's influence, in 



180 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

this respect, is neither so great nor so enduring 
as that of the mother. So true, indeed, does 
this seem to me, that I cannot but feel quite cer- 
tain, that, if we knew the early history of the 
eminent men and women who have most adorned 
and benefited the world, we might follow back 
the stream of their usefulness and fame to the 
nursery, — the pure fountain of maternal pru- 
dence, affection, and piety. Nor is it strange 
that so it should be. Providence itself seems to 
have ordained, that the care of the child shall 
chiefly devolve on the mother. Her influence, 
whatever it be, whether for good or for evil, is 
therefore more felt than that of the father, in 
the most susceptible period of human existence. 
The infant's first smile is drawn forth by her 
kindness, or its first bad passion is awakened 
by her severity. She, too, from her greater inti- 
macy, is better able to know the discipline it 
needs than the father. The earliest dawning 
of reason, the earliest stirring of emotion, the 
earliest line of character, are noticed by her 
quick eye. Her familiarity removes all restraint, 
and she can distinctly perceive the very inmost 
workings of the heart and mind of her offspring. 
From morning till evening, her eye follows the 
object of her hopes and fears ; so that she has 
constant opportunities of checking every symp- 
tom of folly, encouraging every appearance of 
virtue, and, generally, of suiting her lessons to 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 181 

all the varying tempers and needs of the child. 
On the contrary, man, engaged in the turmoil of 
business, the cares of a profession, or some of the 
other harassing pursuits of the world, returns 
home, rather to relax his mind by caressing and 
sporting with his little ones, than to search for 
faults in them, or to correct their errors. His 
coming is generally greeted with delight in the 
domestic circle ; and it seems to him hard to act 
the part of a rigid censor, to cast a gloom over 
cheerful faces, or chill the warm current of glad 
feeling in happy hearts, even in case he really 
discerns occasions for reproof. But in fact, nine 
cases out of ten, he knows less of the actual dis- 
position of his youngest children, and of the treat- 
ment they should receive, than the chief domestic 
of his house ; while the mother is acquainted 
with both the disposition and the treatment. 
Then, again, if we look to the commencement of 
learning, it is upon this same parent that the task 
of teaching must devolve. To say nothing of the 
husband's want of time ; her patience, her perse- 
verance, and her affection alone are equal to the 
irksome duties of that weary season, — irksome, 
even where nature has been most bountiful, but 
peculiarly trying where she has been sparing 
of her gifts. And then in sickness, in all the 
various diseases incident to childhood, who to 
sustain the drooping head, to administer the 
healing medicine, to watch the feverish slumber, 



182 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

to bear with all the untoward peevishness of youth- 
ful suffering, — who, but that same kind and 
unwearied friend, the Christian mother? 

Fully, therefore, am I convinced, that in re- 
spect to the care and culture of children, upon 
which depends so essentially the weal or woe of 
subsequent years, mothers have, by far, a more 
difficult and important task to perform than 
fathers. No young person (and I would to God 
that I could imprint this sentiment indelibly 
upon every youthful mind) can ever be suffi- 
ciently grateful to a good mother, nor sufficiently 
thankful to a benignant Providence, if he has 
been blessed with such a parent. But if thus 
inestimable be the advantage of maternal affec- 
tion regulated by prudence, and of maternal 
wisdom animated by piety, the evil accruing to 
children from a weak or wicked mother is equally 
incalculable. Of all the calamities which could 
befall an unfortunate family, that of an indiscreet, 
negligent, and vicious mother would seem to me 
the greatest. 

The importance of the subject, my hearers, 
justifies me in addressing to such as sustain the 
maternal relation some very plain and earnest 
remarks respecting the opportunities, trusts, and 
duties of the responsible stations they occupy. 

1. First, then, let me beg of you to consider 
the susceptibility of the human mind and heart 
in the earliest stage of life. Reflect on what edu- 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 183 

cation can do for your offspring. Think not that 
they come from their Maker with a corrupt nature, 
incapable of being moulded by your hand to vir- 
tue. True, they are not perfect ; true, they are 
inclined to evil as well as to good ; and this 
should add to your vigilance and exertions. Re- 
gard them in a proper light. Consider that they 
have within them the elements of future actions, 
— of virtues and vices, which may raise them to 
honor, or sink them in disgrace. But, at the same 
time, view their minds and hearts as subjects of 
culture ; as soils which may be greatly enriched, 
and into which you may cast good seed, with the 
assurance, that, with continued care on your part, 
and under God's common providence, it may yield 
the best of fruits. Remember that there is no 
being on earth so little what nature made it as 
man. It is education that chiefly forms his prin- 
ciples and habits ; and these almost invariably 
remain with him through life : so that he is, in 
the end, much more that which he has become 
than that which he was created. What a lesson 
is this fact suited to teach mothers, and, in- 
deed, all who have in any way the oversight 
and guidance of the young! True, a single 
folly encouraged, a single evil passion suffered 
to triumph, a single vicious habit permitted to 
strengthen itself, may one day terminate in mel- 
ancholy results ; but it is more than equally true, 
that from pure sentiments and noble conduct, 



184 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

early secured by right culture, we may con- 
fidently expect the happiest consequences in 
mature life and old age. 

2. In the next place, reflect, I beseech you, on 
the greatness of the trust reposed in such as 
sustain a relation like yours to children and 
youth. Be it that you do not sit in the councils 
of the nation ; but you have the first agency in 
forming the legislators who are to guide the des- 
tinies of our country. Be it that you do not 
occupy the judge's bench, nor enter the jury box ; 
yet both the balance and the sword of justice are 
indirectly controlled by you, through early mater- 
nal teaching. Be it that you do not engage in 
commerce ; but you mould the characters of 
those upon whose talents and upright dealing 
the prosperity, reputation, and happiness, both of 
individuals and the community, very much de- 
pends. What responsibleness, therefore, rests 
upon you ! The welfare of thousands may be 
traced to the good disposition and virtuous char- 
acter of a single mother ; for her influence often 
reaches to many generations. If she is as she 
should be, she may be the means of diffusing 
over a wide circle, born and unborn, the inestima- 
ble blessings of religion and morality, of honest 
and successful industry, of usefulness to society, 
and joyous peace in private life. My friends, 
think of this, and redouble your exertions to ful- 
fil well the responsible stations you occupy. Let 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 185 

no concern seem to you so great and urgent 
as that of rightly training the children whom 
Providence hath committed, during their form- 
ing period, to your charge. Better fail in any or 
all things else than in the work of early educa- 
tion, — better for yourselves, and better for your 
sons and daughters ! 

3. Again, let me request you to consider, that 
a mother's respectability and true honor lie in 
her personal attention to the welfare of her off- 
spring. She who imagines that any cause, save 
that of inability, may exempt her from the duties 
of parental vigilance and instruction, strangely 
miscalculates the nature of her office ; and she 
who looks upon it as a degradation to become 
the instructor of her own offspring is a stranger 
to that which would constitute the highest dignity 
of her sex. In the walks of fashion she may 
shine ; her qualities may excite the envy of some, 
and command the respect of others ; her accom- 
plishments may secure the admiration of many, 
and swell her own heart with vanity: but, after 
all, such is not the true scene of either her inter- 
est, respectability, or happiness. The sphere of 
her substantial, unfading honor lies far away 
from the crowded haunts of frivolous amusement, 
even in the peaceful retreat of her home. There, 
in the midst of her children, she represses the 
frowardness of one, encourages the diffidence of 
another, and, in judiciously familiar phrase and 



186 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

wisely adapted story, pours lessons of instruction 
into the minds of all. With a mother's gen- 
tleness, she draws forth their talents ; with a 
mother's firmness, she regulates their tempers ; 
with a mother's prudence, she prepares them to 
adorn their stations upon earth ; and, with a 
mother's piety, she leads them in the path 
towards heaven. The wide world presents no 
object more interesting, more exalted, or more 
useful, than such a Christian parent ; nor is 
there any spot on which the eye of God rests 
with greater complacency than upon the retired 
and peaceful scene of her virtuous labors. Such 
a mother becomes the centre of a system of hon- 
orable usefulness, of whose extent the imagination 
can form no adequate conception ; for there is 
not a single worthy principle which she instils, 
that may not descend as the ornament and solace 
of many generations. 

I have spoken of the susceptibility of child- 
hood to a mother's influence ; I have spoken of 
the responsibleness of a mother's station ; I have 
spoken of the respectability of a mother's legiti- 
mate duties. 

These duties it is not my aim — indeed, it is 
not within the compass of my ability — to state 
and explain in detail. They are as numerous as 
your thoughts, feelings, and actions ; for all these, 
in one way or another, 'have a direct or an indirect 
bearing on your children's character, and, through 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 187 

them, on the community. But I can, and with 
your leave I will briefly, suggest how, or in what 
spirit, these duties should be performed. 

1. First, then, seek to perform them intelli- 
gently. For this end, give your minds to study, 
— to the study, I especially mean, of human 
nature, and of the art of education. Think not 
that you gained wisdom enough of this sort at 
school. No knowledge, as to these points, can be 
too extensive for the right management of chil- 
dren. Even in the most subordinate mechanical 
employment, the artisan requires to understand 
the proper use of his implements, and the nature 
of the materials upon which he is to operate. 
And, surely, a Christian mother, whose mind is 
a waste or a wilderness, must be unfitted for en- 
larging the understandings, cultivating the dispo- 
sitions, regulating the principles, and forming the 
habits of her offspring. In truth, such a mother 
is doubly unqualified for her station : first, by in- 
capacity ; and, next, in being unable to secure 
that filial respect which is essential to the due 
efficacy of all parental instruction. 

2. Secondly, discharge the duties of your office 
affectionately. All mean to do this, I doubt not. 
Yet many, through inadvertence or a bad temper, 
fail of it. Parents are often not aware how soon 
children discern and begin to partake of the spirit 
that rules in the breast of those who have the 
care of them. You may see it frequently almost 



188 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

in their first smile or in their first tear. It is 
quite surprising how early the infant can read the 
disposition of the heart in the expression of the 
countenance. Long before it can either speak or 
understand a single word of language, the little 
observer can detect the sentiments of the soul in 
the features of the face or in the tones of the 
voice. And no sooner does it discover than it 
begins to copy them. How important, therefore, 
that a mother's temper, and her manifestations 
of it, be habitually what they should be, — mild, 
cheerful, bland, and affectionate ! Even with 
regard to a froward child, such feeling and 
demeanor in a parent, when connected, as they 
ought always to be, with firmness of purpose, are 
the most effectual remedy of juvenile depravities. 
They are as coals of a purifying fire, which, laid 
upon valuable ore, melt and send out the precious 
metal in glowing and copious streams, while the 
dross, gradually consumed, at last wholly disap- 
pears. 

3. Finally, let me say, — and with emphasis, — 
perform the maternal duties of education reli- 
giously. " As is the mother, so is the daughter," 
saith the Bible : and so also, let me add, is the 
son, to a very great extent ; and this respecting 
the most important of all points, namely, piety 
and virtue. When I see a highly moral and reli- 
gious young man or woman, it occurs to me, as a 
natural and obvious reflection, that the mother's 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 189 

character was distinguished very much in the 
same way. I use the word character, because it 
implies and includes, not only what is outward in 
conduct, but the heart's genuine sentiments and 
the life's actual conduct ; and these are needful 
to constitute an example, in a parent, that will 
work favorably upon the children. Example, — 
this it is which does the work ; but then it must 
be the example of thought as well as of word, 
of feeling as well as of profession. Little good 
shall we do our little boys and girls, merely by 
teaching them how to say, " Our Father who art 
in heaven," if, in fact, we pray not ourselves ; 
nor can we benefit them much by talking of the 
worth of the Bible and of the Sabbath, while 
we ourselves neglect both the one and the other. 
Children know the difference between reality 
and sham. When, therefore, I said, perform the 
maternal duties religiously, I of course meant 
something more than following a form of piety, 
be it of this church or of that. Nothing less 
than this did I intend ; namely, that the mother 
should, from the first, cherish in her own heart, 
and exhibit in all, even her minutest, actions, be- 
fore her sons and daughters, a profound reverence 
for God, a deep sentiment of love for his Son 
Jesus Christ, and a sincerely respectful regard for 
religious institutions. Great wisdom, however, is 
here needed. Let the mother be careful, neither 
inwardly to feel, nor outwardly to show, that reli- 



190 COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 

gion is a separate, exclusive, unsocial, gloomy 
thing. Her religion she must have as a spring 
of gladness in her own soul ; and she must carry 
it about with her, always and everywhere, as a 
help to the making of others joyful. In com- 
mending it to her children, she should aim to 
connect it with all that is most interesting to 
their hearts ; so that it may be, even without their 
knowing it, early incorporated with their most 
delightful sentiments, and interwoven with their 
dearest associations. 

But I must stop here. A great deal might be 
added: time, however, would fail me, should I 
attempt to say more. The discourse has been 
addressed to a most influential class of the com- 
munity, and, I hope, not wholly in vain. There 
is no relation in life more important than the 
maternal. God grant that all who sustain it 
amongst us may feel their responsibility, and 
perform their duties intelligently, affectionately, 
and religiously ! " What is most wanted," 
asked Napoleon, one day, of a distinguished fe- 
male friend, — "what is most wanted, in order 
that the youth of France may be well educated ? " 
— " Good mothers," was her reply. There could 
not have been more wisdom condensed into so 
few words. The aggregate influence of mothers 
is greater than all the rest which operate to form 
the character of a people. The fathers of New 
England are often eulogized ; but, in truth, the 



COUNSELS FOR MOTHERS. 191 

virtue and piety of our communities is owing 
more to the early mothers than the early fathers. 
Honored be their memories ! Shall New Eng- 
land continue to take the lead in morals and reli- 
gion, as well as in intelligence ? This can and 
will be only on the condition, that in the fu- 
ture, as in the past, she is blessed with " good 
mothers." 



192 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 



IX. 

MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

Psalm viii. 3, 4, 5 : " When I consider the heavens, the 

WORK OF THY FINGERS, THE MOON AND THE STARS WHICH 
THOU HAST ORDAINED, — WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART 
MINDFUL OF HIM? AND THE SON OF MAN, THAT THOU VISIT- 
EST HIM? FOR THOU HAST MADE HIM A LITTLE LOWER 
THAN THE ANGELS, AND HAST CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY 
AND HONOR." 

The first natural sentiment which awakens with- 
in us, as we contemplate the vastness of the uni- 
verse, and God's infinite power and greatness, is 
the one expressed in the beginning of the text, — 
a feeling that creatures so small as we can hardly 
be among the objects of divine regard ; and we 
are moved to exclaim, " What is man, God ! 
that thou art mindful of him ? " But as with 
David, so with us : this sentiment is soon suc- 
ceeded by another more elevating and ennobling. 
Our thoughts, though they must recognize, can- 
not dwell on, man's comparative insignificance. 
They rise above it. They hasten to the con- 
sideration of his intrinsic nature, his own high 
capacities and powers, his real importance, his 



MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 193 

positive relations to God and immortality; and 
we are then prompted to adopt again the appro- 
priate language of the Psalmist, — "Thou hast 
made us a little lower than the angels, and hast 
crowned us with glory and honor." And so to 
do is not only natural and right: 4 it is also 
useful. 

My hearers, among man's many wants is the 
want of a true self-respect. He has been told so 
much of his weakness and depravity, that he has 
almost come to believe there is little else save 
weakness and depravity in his nature. Would it 
not be good for him to be reminded more fre- 
quently of his higher endowments ? At least, 
ought not the distinction to be kept carefully in 
view, between what he is as he comes from his 
Creator's hand, and what he makes himself by 
his vices ? 

There are two ways of treating children at 
school: one is to be always telling them that 
they are dunces, and cannot learn ; the other is 
to impress it on their minds, at proper seasons, 
that they have capacities and powers for valuable 
acquisitions. The latter method, it seems to me, 
is the better one. So, as regards mankind at 
large, there are two modes of addressing them 
on moral and religious subjects : the one is to 
talk to them perpetually of a supposed entire cor- 
ruption of the human heart by nature, and thus 
to depress and discourage them; the other is to 

13 



194 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

remind them often of the capabilities God hath 
given them for high attainments in piety and 
virtue. Do I err in deeming the latter mode 
preferable to the former ? 

Far be it from me, however, to think or speak 
extravagantly of human nature: but, surely, 
what Scripture and reason authorize I may be- 
lieve respecting it ; and teach too, if by so doing 
any good practical end can be accomplished. 

Men want, as I have said, a true self-respect. 
Perhaps there is nothing, except reverence for 
God, that some persons more need than this. 
But no one can have it who sees in his nature 
only weakness, impurity, and vice. And destitute 
of all due self-respect, having never learned to 
appreciate aright his natural capabilities, a man 
lacks one of the most effectual of moving forces. 
Inaction accompanies imagined impotency. Ef- 
fort, if ever made, follows the belief that effort 
will avail something. What can reasonably be 
expected of one who deems himself akin to the 
brute ? or of him who believes he was created 
with an irresistible proneness to sin, and with ca- 
pacities and tastes for nothing else ? If I wished 
to reduce a community to the lowest condition of 
vice, I should begin with trying to make its mem- 
bers think meanly of their nature ; with attempt- 
ing to convince them that man is little more than 
a common animal, except that he has somewhat 
greater ingenuity and power for mischief. Among 






MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 195 

the steps of discipline by which an individual as- 
cends in improvement towards perfection, one of 
the most important, in my opinion, is, that he 
learn early in life to respect himself, to think 
worthily of what, as a human being, he was 
created to be, and may become ; and the teacher 
can hardly do a better service, than to heighten in 
the community this sense of character, this feel- 
ing of a superior nature, this consciousness of 
moral capacity and power. 

Nor let it be feared that hereby the grounds of 
Christian humility will be removed. To respect 
one's self, in the sense intended, is not the same 
as being satisfied with one's acquired character ; 
but it is simply to think justly, i.e. highly, of 
one's original nature. To form too lofty concep- 
tions of what we have made ourselves is one 
thing, and certainly a bad thing. But it is quite 
another, and altogether a good thing, to respect, 
to deem sacred, to reverence most profoundly, 
what God hath made us. Christian humility 
grows out of the conviction of having neglected or 
abused divine gifts, not of having never received 
them. It follows, that the true way to make a 
man feel humble is, not to teach him that the 
nature he has in common with his race is a mean 
one ; but it is to show him, that, whatever be this 
nature of his, he has acted unworthily of it. Per- 
suade a person who is conscious of great moral 
deficiencies that his original capabilities were of 



196 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

a high order, and you adopt th'e most effectual 
means of giving him the true feeling of humility ; 
because you lead him to reflect on what he was 
created to be and might have become, in contrast 
with what he knows that he is. Indeed, the more 
a man reverences his nature, other things being 
alike, so much the more humbling must be his 
sense of personal failings and imperfections : andj 
let me add, the more highly one thinks of his 
nature, provided he keeps within the bounds of 
truth, so much the more likely will he be, other 
things being equal, to improve ; for such a man, 
as a matter of course, elevates the mark at which 
he aims, from what has been done to what may 
be done ; and, if he do not reach perfection, he is 
sure to approach nearer to it for constantly keep- 
ing it in his view. 

But the subject of the text, — " man " ? How 
much, brethren, is implied in this little word of 
but three letters ! Who comprehends its entire 
meaning ? Be it, as many love to suggest, that 
this creature, called man, is often to be seen in 
conditions not very well suited to inspire rever- 
ence, — in the cradle, in the forest, in the prison. 
But what follows ? That his nature is at fault ? 
Why point me to the infant, the savage, the crim- 
inal ? They afford no fair specimen of man's true 
capacities and powers. I see in them immaturity, 
or want of cultivation, or unfaithfulness ; but no 
lack of natural ability for that which is good and 



MAN AND TEUE MANLINESS. 197 

great. What was man designed to be, what can 
he be, what is he, when, under appropriate 
circumstances, all his native powers are entirely 
and proportionally unfolded ? Answer these 
questions aright, and you give me correct views 
of human nature. In a word, the nature of man 
is to be learned, not from studying it in its un- 
cultivated or abused state, but in its condition 
of full growth and perfection. Now, take such a 
specimen ; take a man whose whole physical, in- 
tellectual, moral, and religious character is, as it 
was intended to be, full-grown, completely de- 
veloped, perfected ; and what, I ask, amongst 
the works of God, is so worthy of admiration? 
Who does not feel compelled, with the Psalmist, 
to exclaim, " Thou hast made him a little lower 
than the angels, and crowned him with glory 
and honor"? What power of thought! What 
strength of affection ! What noble deeds ! Rea- 
son, conscious free will, — what wonders these ! 
He conceives of God ! He feels himself immor- 
tal! And this is the nature, which it is our 
charge, not to despise, but to reverence ; not to 
degrade, but to exalt ; not to stint and sully, but 
to enrich and adorn. Brethren, do we accept 
the charge ? and are we willing to obey it ? 
Then, happily, we are in a mood to form and ex- 
press, as becomes us, conceptions and purposes 
of duty, befitting the devout and grateful ac- 
knowledgment of the text, " Thou hast made us 



198 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
us with glory and honor." * 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then, God helping us, we will rise at 
once above the sphere of animals. Such beings 
as we should scorn to seek their chief good in 
sensual indulgence. Appetite and passion, then, 
let us control ; and, looking beyond this body, 
recognize the mind ; and pass life, not in asking, 
chiefly, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, 
wherewithal shall we be clothed, but in cultivating 
to the utmost that in us which is distinctively 
human. 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then shame on us, if we allow our- 
selves to be passively shaped by outward circum- 
stances, or to be the creatures of accidental 
impulse, or to be carried hither and thither by 
the ever-varying currents of the times ! For, 
clearly enough, it belongs to our nature to have a 
will — subordinate to God's indeed, yet our own, 
and as responsible as it is personal — to act this 
way or that, not because others do so, nor from 
motives of worldly pelicy, but conscientiously, 
from a principle, a spring, an energy within, 
which is an overmatch for adverse influences 
from without; which makes external things yield 
before us ; which enables us to resist the force of 
circumstances, and to bend events to our own 
high purposes. 



MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 199 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then let us see to it, that our individ- 
uality and independence be not lost amidst earth- 
serving multitudes that may chance to gather 
around us. For God created every man, even 
as he did the angel, not to disappear in the 
crowd, not merely to make part of a whole, 
not to help compose a mass as a particle of dust 
in a sand-hill ; but he created each of us a dis- 
tinct, ultimate being, and constituted his own 
perfection his highest end, and ordained accord- 
ingly that he should have his appropriate share, 
stand upon his own feet, maintain a separate 
existence, act a peculiar part, and form a dis- 
tinctive character. 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then no timidity, no fear, becomes us, 
except that of doing wrong. Ours must be a 
spirit that nothing in this world's artificial glare 
and glory can awe or abash ; a spirit that feels 
itself accountable to a higher tribunal than the 
popular judgment ; that respects itself too much 
to be the slave of any fashion, or the tool of any 
party; that is frightened from the narrow way 
of right by no difficulty, reproach, or peril, but 
adheres to duty, bold in the presence of danger, 
calm in the midst of tumult, self-possessed 
and determined, though all seem adverse, save 
conscience and God. 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 



200 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

angels." How, then, can we think of living 
to ourselves alone ? Shall we disgrace our own 
high nature by caring nothing for the same na- 
ture in our fellows ? God forbid, that so we 
should shut up and quench in selfish souls that 
divine principle of love within us, which, quick- 
ened and expanded as it was designed to be, 
knows no bounds to its benevolence ; which rec- 
ognizes in all human beings the image of God 
and the rights of his children ; which rejoices 
in virtue wherever found, and sympathizes with 
suffering wherever seen ; which vanquishes pride 
and selfishness and indolence, and offers itself 
up, if need be, a willing sacrifice on the broad 
altar of society! 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then far from our mind, let us at 
once say, be every inordinate desire of those 
worldly distinctions, which, either in the attain- 
ing or in the possessing of them, will put to 
hazard our integrity, our peace of mind, our 
usefulness, or our spiritual advancement ! For 
what to us should be wealth, if, in the getting 
of it, we must lose our health or our virtue, or 
in the using of it must grow voluptuous ? What 
to us should be office, if the way to it lead us 
through corruption, and the station itself is sur- 
rounded with all that perplexes and debases? 
What to us should be leisure, that boon so much 
coveted, if, in having it, we must think of no con- 



MAN AND TKUE MANLINESS. 201 

cern on earth but to live easily, having nothing 
to do but pamper and adorn the body, or chase 
frivolous pleasures, or nutter gayly about society, 
— the most insignificant and useless thing in 
God's world ? And so of the rest, — as we have 
within us each a living human soul, — away with 
them all, so far, I mean, as they interfere with 
the functions and growth of that soul ! For why 
despoil our better nature of its Creator's image 
while living, and, in dying, leave behind us no 
memorial of our privileged existence, except, 
perhaps, some few stones over our grave, and 
some few words of an epitaph, which, if true, 
can but remind passers-by that we were rich, or 
were once in office, or were gentlemen of leisure, 
and did nobody any good, but much harm to 
many, at least through our example, — when we 
might live a life, might perform deeds, might 
build up characters, the memory of which would 
be enshrined in the hearts of thousands on earth 
for their spiritual good, while ourselves were en- 
joying the bliss of heaven ? 

" Thou hast made us a little lower than the 
angels." Then, my hearers, I end, as I began, 
by saying, we need self-respect ; and, in order to 
have it, we must know and feel something of the 
greatness which pertains to the nature God hath 
given to us. From this doctrine many doubt- 
less will dissent ; and some believers in it, very 
likely, may question the expediency of making it 



202 MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 

a frequent topic of instruction. For myself, I 
belong no more to the latter class than to the 
former. The doctrine seems to me not only true, 
but of great practical use ; and the prevalent 
modes of thought and action show that there is 
urgent need of its being often inculcated. Who 
can believe that the mass of mankind would 
conduct themselves so unworthily as they do, but 
for the low notions they have been taught to 
entertain of the nature whereof they are partak- 
ers ? How can they be elevated in morals and 
religion, except it be impressed upon their minds 
that they have capacities and powers for high 
attainments, — that it is in them to rise to emi- 
nence in piety and virtue ? As for thee, my 
brother, my sister, whoever thou mayst be that 
hearest me, if thou feelest within thy soul any 
sincere desire to be and do all that, and only 
that, which becomes thee, then, first of all, know 
and understand what God hath created thee, 
what he hath taught thee to aspire after, and 
what thou canst, under him, make thyself. It 
will be one of thy best safeguards against vice, 
and one of the most efficient quickeners of virtue. 
Learn, betimes, to think well of thy nature ; not, 
however, as if this could imply unconsciousness 
of transgression. No : abhor thy sins, cast them 
far from thee, lament in dust and ashes thy short- 
comings, and bow in all contrition and humility 
before the throne of divine grace; but never, 



MAN AND TRUE MANLINESS. 203 

never blame human nature, whatever may be 
thy own character ; remember Him who made it 
what it is, and honor the Creator by respecting 
his work. Next to God and his Son Jesus Christ, 
reverence thy nature ; stand in awe of it ; rejoice 
and be grateful in thinking of its noble powers, 
its lofty aspirations. Guard it from error and 
pollution more than thou wouldst the safety of a 
thousand lives, hadst thou so many to protect. 
Turn away from those who would rob thee of the 
conviction, that thou hast within thee, as the gift 
of an all-wise and benevolent God, capacities and 
principles which ally thee to the spirits on high. 
Crave association with those who recognize and 
delight to speak of the native greatness, the im- 
mortal growth, of the human soul. At all times, 
and in all places, remember, or, if thou chance to 
forget it, seek to be reminded as soon as possible, 
that a mere animal thou art not, but a being of a 
high order, made a little lower than the angels, 
created in the image of God and his own eter- 
nity ; and, with full comprehension of what this 
language of Holy Writ means, see to it that thou 
act up to all which it implies. 



204 A GOOD OLD AGE. 



X. 



Job v. 26: "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, 

LIKE AS A SHOCK OF CORN COMETH IN ITS SEASON." 

[The following is an extract from a discourse occasioned by 
the death of John Wheeler, Esq., for many years a much- 
respected parishioner of Dr. Barrett's, who died in 1856, aged 
76. After discoursing on some of the consolations under 
bereavement from the death of aged friends, the sermon closed 
with the following suggestions as to the means by which a good 
old age could be secured.] 

Liye temperately. Eat not too much. Drink 
not too much. Indulge not the passions too 
much. By neglect in these respects, multitudes 
lay the foundation of disease, and bring on a 
premature death. 

Live calmly. Let nothing greatly disturb you. 
Next to temperance, as to the bodily appetite, 
equanimity is one of the chief helpers to a long 
life. Fret not. Guard against being chafed 
by the world. Transact your business quietly. 
Avoid extremes in every pursuit. Follow the 
golden mean, always and everywhere. Neither 
rust out in indolence, nor wear out by too much 
work. Be not over-anxious about health, or any 



HOW TO BE SECURED. 205 

thing else. Nothing wastes one's strength more 
surely than the thousand vexations to which 
many allow themselves to be subject ; while noth- 
ing leads more certainly to a full age than tran- 
quil equanimity in good and in bad fortune. 

Live constantly on your guard against need- 
less exposures. Presume not that you are able 
to bear up under every possible burden of busi- 
ness. Know and feel that the most robust body 
cannot endure all things ; that extremes of heat 
and cold are not to be encountered without appro- 
priate safeguards ; that excessive toil will in time 
break down the firmest frame ; that slight sick- 
nesses, brought on by whatever cause, are not to 
be disregarded, but attended to in season ; that 
health, in a word, is as fragile as it is precious, 
and, for its continuance to a full age, must be 
thoughtfully cared for and protected from a thou- 
sand foes by its possessors. 

Live in all respects virtuously and piously. So 
to do is to obey the laws of nature and of God ; 
and to obey this law is the true method of attain- 
ing to a full age. . Virtue and piety comprise 
the sum of human duty ; and in the way of duty 
is safety, — safety to the physical as well as the 
spiritual part of man. Duty, done seasonably 
and faithfully, all of duty, — what is it, but the 
fit regulation of the thoughts, the right govern- 
ment of the feelings, the keeping of one's self un- 
spotted from the world, the avoidance of all vice, 



206 A GOOD OLD AGE. 

the practice of morality in its every department, 
the love and worship of God, the following of 
Christ in purity and all excellence, the cherish- 
ing of good-will towards every human being, the 
possessing and exercising of a conscience void of 
offence at all times and in all places, the main- 
taining and manifesting of a cheerful and hopeful 
spirit in respect both to this world and the next ? 
And who will say that these things, and such as 
these, are not favorable to health and longevity ? 

But I need not proceed further. Believing as 
I do that the fulness of age is a privilege and 
blessing to the good, I wish and pray for it, as it 
concerns both you and myself, in the hope that 
we shall do what is necessary on our part to 
secure it. 

Especially do I wish and pray for a Jiappy ful- 
ness of age, as was that of him who has lately 
departed from amongst us. God, in his infinite 
mercy, fulfil the wish ! May the close of your 
life, brothers and sisters, be calm and peaceful ! 
May memory then place before you a pleasing 
picture of the past! May faith stand before you, 
like an angel of light, to make the future as a 
blissful reality ! May friendship hang over you 
with all the benignity and tenderness of a minis- 
tering spirit ! while gratitude, at a distance, points 
to her heart, and tells you, " There shall you be 
interred." Yes, my friends, this I sincerely wish 
for you, and all besides which will supply a mild 



HOW TO BE SECURED. 207 

and cheerful light to the evening of your day, 
when its gaudier beams shall be gone ; all which 
will irradiate the shadows of your dying hours. 

Especially the remembrance of such a uniform 
and constant career of virtuous conduct as shall, 
in conjunction with the mercy of God, in Jesus 
Christ, lay a foundation for the steady and un- 
hesitating hope of rising from the body that dies 
to the life everlasting in heaven. 



THE END. 



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THE LIFE AND WORKS 



LESSING. 

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